


Meet me in the past

by thoughtfullyyoungduck



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Adult Losers Club (IT), Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, Heavy Angst, Stanley Uris Lives, Stanley Uris Takes a Bath, Suicide, Time Travel, adult stan uris, for a while, young stan uris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22742764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtfullyyoungduck/pseuds/thoughtfullyyoungduck
Summary: After Stanley Uris takes his own life, his daughter goes to find the recipients of his letters and ends up in Derry. After an encounter with IT, she ends up traveling back into the past, meeting the younger version of her dad and his friends.
Relationships: OC - Relationship, Stan/patty blum, Stanley Uris/Reader, Stanley uris/daughter, called Emily, the losers club x daughter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

The bus ride to Derry, did not take as long as Emily expected. She supposed that she had gotten lost in thought but that wasn’t exactly true. Emily had dozed off, which seemed impossible to her now. Still, the small nap hadn’t done anything good. Quite the opposite actually, now that the edge of the exhaustion had been taking off, it was impossible not to notice her growling stomach, her impending headache, her tense muscles and the way she couldn’t keep her leg still no matter what she tried. 

Her bouncing leg was a tell sign that she was nervous, and it was one both her dad and mom had tried to dispose of. It never worked, and after a while her parents just gave up, resorting to squeezing her hand whenever the bouncing got to bad. The thought of her parents made Emily sob. She quickly pressed the palm of her hand against her mount, the couple in front of her and a shady man looked her way, seeing her cry, but then they turned around as if they hadn’t seen anything. Emily tried to wipe her tears away, but she wasn’t even sure why she tried. 

She didn’t understand how everything could turn out so badly. Just a week ago she had been so excited, she had asked her dad if they could go see a new theater piece. Emily had always been a fan of that sort of thing, and she knew her dad didn’t mind it either. He had laughed at her excitement before kissing her head and agreeing to go. It was their thing, Stan would always greet her with a kiss to the head, and she would always respond by doing the same to him. 

Only 3 days ago, right before Stanley Uris took his last bath, their routine had changed. She had come home from school a little later than usual, because she had studied in the library, and she got home on the exact moment her dad put down the phone. He had looked more scared, more pale than Emily had ever seen him, and so she had cautiously approached him. His eyes had been wild and scared, and as soon as she came into his line of vision, she could see that he was looking at her up and down. He got closer and whipped some of her hair away, to look at the bruise she had gotten because she fell of her bike on her way to school. He inspected it closer, and she had pulled away laughing, but she abruptly stopped once she saw the grimace on Stanley’s face. He had hugged her then, so tightly it almost felt as if she couldn’t breathe, and kissed her head a couple of times in quick succession. When she had asked him if he was okay, he said that he was going to take a bath. Emily had stared at him until he disappeared inside the bathroom door, and it was the last time she would ever see him. 

Now, as she was staring at the woods the bus passed, Emily mostly felt guilty. It was a change from the past days, in which she had only felt sadness and sorrow, and maybe even though she would never admit it, not even too herself, a little angry. Now she felt guilty for leaving her mom all alone, while she was off to meet people she had never heard about. 

The letters in her bag felt like lead though, the very reason she decided to go to Derry. She didn’t know who any of these people were, but clearly they’re important because her dad wrote them letters. He hadn’t even written her a letter. She tried not to dwell on it too much, she could already feel the resentment towards these unknown people grow, and she hadn’t even met them yet. He had left her mother a note, but Patty didn’t have it in herself to read it yet, so Emily had respected her wishes and didn’t open it.

She was desperate to know what was on them, because she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried, figure out why he had done it. She hadn’t noticed anything unusual about him in the last week, and if she was honest, it terrified her. How could she not have known that her dad was going to do something so drastic and horrific? Emily had considered herself pretty close with her dad, especially when she compared herself to her friends, yet Stan’s deed came so unexpected, she wondered if she had ever really known her dad at all.

She shook her head, she wasn’t going down this path, not yet. First she had a mission, and she was determined to complete it before she would allow herself to breakdown. She took the letters out of her bag once more, as she had been doing the entire trip here. Stan, with his neat handwriting, had written 6 names, none that sounded all that familiar to her. Beverly, Mike, Ben, Bill, Eddie and Richie. It was actually Richie’s names that caused a bell to go off in her head. She had gone to watch one of his shows once, with her parents, but Stan had gotten sick and ran off in the middle of it, and Patty and her had followed. Stan hadn’t giving an explanation, he himself didn’t know what happened, but they had left early and Emily had never asked him to go to one of his shows again. When she found the letters, after her mother had went with the ambulance and she was alone, she had instantly recognized his name.

It was weird, seeing the name of a random comedian on one of his suicide letters, but Emily had been strictly against opening his herself. While her mother didn’t want to look at hers, Emily didn’t want to look at theirs, out of fear of what they might say. It further fueled her suspicions though, that she hadn’t really known her father at all. She was brought out her mind when the bus came to a stop. She waited, patiently as her parents had taught her, until everyone had excited before she too got off the bus. She bid adieu to the ugly, green, uncomfortable bus sheet she had spent almost an entire day on, and inhaled the fresh air once she finally got out into the open.

The air in Derry was chilled, and Emily wished she had taken a jacket in her hurry to get out of her house. She and patty had been staying with her grandparents, and she had only returned to grab some clothes, which meant most of the blood was still in the bathroom. Emily had screamed until her voice was hoarse and then waited until she felt stable enough to get up and walk towards the bus stop, no one would ever found out about her breakdown.  
She didn’t know exactly where to go from here. In fact it was a miracle that she had even managed to find the town in the first place. After finding the letters, she had realized that her dad had just gotten of a phone call before he did what he did, so she had looked through his phone and called back the number which had called him. The call came from a town called Derry, and Emily had only known that was where her father was born because her dad mentioned it. Once. He mentioned it once. 

When she called back a man answered on the phone. ‘Stan, are you okay’? The man had asked, and he had sounded genuinely concerned for him. ‘Stan, it’s Mike are you alright’? Emily had dropped the phone in an instant. Mike was one of the people her dad left a letter too. 

It was by coincidence that she heard people in the hospital talk about how the famous comedian ‘trashmount Tozier’ had suddenly taken a break from his tour, to return to his hometown. She didn’t know If Richie was also born in Derry, but she was willing to take her changes. 

She didn’t really know what she was doing now, she had spent an agonizing 36 hours on her way to Derry, yet not once had she thought about what she would do once she actually got there. Almost as if there was a cosmic force at play, her father’s phone, which she had put in her pocket, went off. The sound was shrill, and it hurt Emily’s ears. The rest of the town was so quiet, like there wasn’t another living soul in this town, and it frankly creeped her out. 

She fished the phone out with great difficulty, but to her surprise there was no indication that the phone had went of in the first place. She frowned, and checked the phone over again, but no new messages showed up. It did give her an idea though. She went back to incoming calls, to find Mike’s number once more. Her finger hovered above it for a few seconds, and she was hit with a feeling of uncertainty. 

What was she doing? She had just rushed off with these letters, to people who didn’t even know her, leaving her poor mother behind to grieve on her own. Still, she did her best to shake off the feeling, it would do her no good to ponder on this now. She needed to find a place to stay, and quick. 

With determination, she clicked the number, holding the phone up to her ear and waiting for it to ring. Before long, the male voice answered again.  
‘Stan? Stan were are you? The rest of us is already here. Are you lost? Do you need someone to come pick you up’? Mike’s voice sounded winded. Emily realized that he was probably a little tipsy. In the background she could hear people laughing and having fun. She was about to destroy that however, once she told the news about her father. 

‘Hello’? Her hesitant voice called out, and she cursed herself for sounding so scared.  
‘Who’s this’? Mike asked, and he immediately sounded guarded. He probably didn’t expect a woman to answer the phone.  
‘Hi, yes, sorry eum. Look I.. I need to talk to you. Please I know this is weird and you have no idea who I am but just please. I really need to talk you. It’s about Stanley’. Hearing her own voice say her father’s name sounded wrong somehow, like she was disrespecting him.  
Nevertheless, she had no other option. She couldn’t just tell this man that she was Stan’s daughter. 

The pause on the other side was longer this time. She could hear the noise in the background fading away. Most likely everyone was now listening in to Mike’s conversation and she didn’t know how she felt about that.  
‘Alright’, Mike announced hesitantly, ‘can you meet me at the Jade oriental’?  
Emily had no idea where that was, but she was sure she could somehow find it. Google maps really was her best friend here. She nodded, before realizing he couldn’t see her.  
‘Yes that’s fine, I’ll be there soon’. She replied. The man hummed but before anything else could be said Emily ended the call. 

It took 5 minutes of her fumbling with her phone to get google maps working, and she let out a heavy sigh once it did. The restaurant was just around the corner from where she was standing. She didn’t have to lose that many time on getting the stupid app to work. 

She didn’t know who she was looking for, once she entered the restaurant. The panic in her body spread even further as she looked around and so no one she recognized. The flares of hot, white anger shot through her again, but as she had been doing for the past 3 days, she pushed it down again.  
Towards the back of the restaurant a man stood up, he looked at her with a curious look, as if he was deciding if she was the girl he had been talking too.  
‘Mike’? Emily called out attentively, because she hadn’t told him her name. The man nodded and took a step forward, still keeping enough distance so that he still had enough time to run away in case something went wrong. 

Emily took the guy in. He seemed like he was a nice man, the grandfather type, who would give you biscuits and tell stories about how things used to back in his days. He definitely wasn’t old enough to be a grandfather yet though, he seemed about her dad’s age. 

Behind him a group of five other people reached their necks out to take a look at them, watching like hawks as if they were waiting for her to try and hurt Mike. She recognized the comedian, Richie, and a weight fell of her shoulders knowing she could hand off the letters her father had wrote to at least two people. 

‘Where’s Stanley’? He asked uneasily, and the lump in Emily’s throat appeared again.  
‘He, is.. my dad he’ Emily forced out, but she couldn’t continue as tears started to cloud her vision.  
Mike’s eyes widened and he took another step forward. ‘Stan is your father’? He asked in amazement, though once he took in Emily’s disheveled state the small smile he had on his face dropped. 

Emily nodded, and a loud sob she couldn’t contain left her mount. Instantly Mike reached out for her, and wrapped his arms around the younger girl. Emily didn’t understand why, but the moment Mike hugged her, she melted into him. She didn’t even know this guy that well, yet he made her feel safe in a way she couldn’t explain. It was only then that she realized how much she missed her father hugs. They always had a way of making Emily feel like everything would be okay again. Yet nothing would ever be okay again now. 

‘Something happened to him didn’t it?’ Mike asked. He sounded both scared and loving at the same time, and Emily was once again reminded of her analogy with a grandfather. 

She nodded and pulled back a bit. ‘He killed himself’. She bit her lip right after she said. It was the first time she had spoken those words out loud, and saying them, putting them out in the open, made it real. Mike didn’t reply for a long time. Startled Emily could feel tears dripping into her hair. Mike was crying. He pulled back, whipping his tears away and smiling sadly towards her. ‘Come on, I’ll introduce you to the other members of the losers club’. She didn’t know who the losers club was, but Mike seemed pretty confident that she would, so she didn’t ask. 

The other people around the table, most likely the losers club, were slouched down in their seats. They all looked sadly around, and one man had his arm wrapped around a woman. They must have heard Emily say Stan killed himself.

There was an empty chair, right next to a guy she didn’t recognize and Richie, and Mike led her over to. 

‘Guys, This is’, he stopped while look at Emily puzzled. 

‘Emily’, she supplied, once she realized that she hadn’t even told Mike her name. 

‘Emily’, Mike repeated, ‘She’s Stanley’s daughter’. 

Emily felt all eyes of the people sitting at the table on her, and it made her queasy. Her stomach rumbled once again, and she pressed her arm against it to stop the sound from being spread. The man on her left offered his plate up to her, and he smiled at her hesitantly. ‘You should eat something’, he spoke up, and it was clear he wasn’t used to dealing with teenagers, because his voice sounded too childish for Emily’s looking, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she took the plate with a grateful smile and a small thank you.  
She wasn’t really that hungry, she was afraid that everything she would eat would come back up, but she felt it would be too rude to decline. 

She wanted to tell Mike and Richie about the letters in her bag, but she didn’t know who any of these people were, and she didn’t know if she could just hand the letters to them. For a few moments there was tense silence, nobody spoke and it seemed like everyone was looking at each other to start up a conversation. It was Richie that spoke again. 

‘Wow, so Stan married someone huh? Can’t believe he would actually have sex, always thought he was too prudish for it.’ The woman slapped Richie’s arm harshly, her eyes set in a hard glare. ‘Not now Rich’, she said, while Richie was rubbing his arm with a hiss. 

‘Right okay Bev sorry fuck me I guess’. This guy was crude, Emily realized, but he was funny. Perfect to become a comedian. 

‘No, it’s alright, don’t worry about it’. She supplied, after getting over her initial shock. Beverly was also the name on one of the postcards. Could all of them be the people her dad wrote his letters too?

‘I’m sorry, I don’t want to be rude, but who are you guys? And how do you know my dad?’ Emily figured she was at least entitled to an explanation. 

Mike looked taken aback. ‘Right, Stan didn’t remember either’, he mumbled while looking down. 

‘Remember what’? she asked, but she was interrupted by the woman. ‘My name’s Beverly’, she said with a small but sad smile, ‘but you can call me Bev’. 

‘I’m Bill’ the man next to her said, right before taking a sip of his beer. 

‘I’m Ben’, and the man by far seemed to be the kindest of the group, not that any of them seemed particularly unfriendly. 

‘I’m Eddie’, the man who had offered up his plate of food spoke up. 

‘And I’m Rich..’ Before Richie could finish Emily spoke up. ‘Richie, yeah I know, my parents and I watched your show once’. She purposefully let out the part where Stan had ran out to throw up, and she concluded that that had been a good idea when Richie’s face turned a pale white from just this piece of information alone. 

‘Really?’ He asked, but it sounded choked up, like he had to physically push the words out of his mount. Emil nodded; ‘Yeah, he said the jokes were good’.  
Richie turned away from her then, but she could swear she saw tears in his eyes. 

‘Why, w-w-hy did he do it’? Bill, she pretty sure his name was, was gripping his glass so tight his knuckles were turning white.  
Emily shrugged, ‘he didn’t write me a letter.’ And when she found out he didn’t, she nearly ripped the letters that he had written. She didn’t though and now she was here, and she just wanted to hand them over, maybe subconsciously, she wanted more than anything to know what was on them, and she might find out if she gave them the letters now. 

‘He did write you guys, though’. She said while reaching for her bag. The letters looked a bit wrinkled from traveling with her for so long, and Emily cringed at that. Her dad would hate that, he would start all over with new letters who didn’t have wrinkles in them. 

She handed them out one by one. First Eddie, then Richie, then Bill, then Ben, then Mike and finally Beverly aswell. She looked as everyone one of them looked at letters for a couple a seconds, doing nothing, just staring. Richie was the first one to respond. He tore the letter open, but then paused again as everyone’s eyes had shifted towards. He then put the letter down and stared down towards his hands. 

‘I’ll read it after I get to the hotel room tonight’. 

Beverly was looking at Emily with concern in her eyes, and walked over towards her. ‘Are you alright’, she whispered, like she was talking to a wounded animal. Suddenly it felt like the self-control, the short line that had stopped Emily from acting on her anger had snapped. She wasn’t a wounded animal, clearly her father didn’t care as much about her as he cared about these people he had never even mentioned to her. Emily jumped up, causing Eddie on her left to flinch, and normally she would feel guilty for that, but now she just felt anger in her veins. It was all consuming and not once did Emily stop to think rationally like she usually would. 

‘No, I’m not fucking okay. My dad killed himself only 2 days ago, yet here I am. Delivering some stupid letters to people I have never once in my life heard about.’  
‘Emily’, Mikes voice reached her ears, but she didn’t pause for a second, instead opting to keep seething. It seemed that once she began, it was hard to stop the venomous words from coming out. 

‘I mean, he didn’t even write me a letter, and I’m his daughter. Did he not think I had a right to know?’ Emily was heaving by the time the words were out of her mouth. Everyone was staring at her, with gaping mouths. 

Emily plopped down onto her chair once again. Tears were streaming down her face, and it was like all the strength had left her. ‘I hate him’, she murmured, she couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. Beverly crouched down in front of her, placing her hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. 

‘IT’, a voice called out suddenly. Emily’s head whipped up, and she made eye contact with Bill, who was looking at her intently.  
‘What’s IT’? Emily questioned. The others head whipped around to watch Bill with wide eyes.

‘Don’t tell her dude, not after everything that happened’. 

‘She deserves to know’, Bill reasoned, gesturing his arms widely.  
‘Tell me what? What is IT?’ Emily was getting impatient, she had no idea what they were talking about. 

‘IT is the reason your dad killed himself. It’s a thing, I don’t know how to explain it. IT changes into our worst fears, we fought it once as kids, and now we have to do it again.’ Bill explained, his hands were trembling and it looked like he was trying hard not to cry. 

Emily stared at him and blinked, once, twice before letting out an angry huff.  
‘You think this is funny? I spend so long coming here, to get you your stupid letter and then you come up with this stupid story?’  
Beverly started shaking her head. ‘He’s right, it’s hard to explain just please hear us out.’ 

Before Beverly can get another word out, the table begins to shake. In the middle of the table there were now fortune cookies. Emily hadn’t paid enough attention to notice them being placed there, but that wasn’t what she took notice off. The fact that the fortune cookies are jumping up from the plate they are placed on, is what does. 

Her eyes widen and in an instant Beverly has pushed her back out of the chair, and backwards toward the exit. Everyone else also jumps up, and Eddie comes running over toward the two of them. 

One of the fortune cookies cracks open, a shrieking baby thing appears out of it. A scream leaves Emily lips before she has the mind to force it back. The thing comes flying towards Emily, Beverly and Eddie.

All three of them start waving their hands widely around them, trying to get away from whatever the hell that thing is. It seems to attack Emily specifically and she is absolutely petrified. She can hear the others screaming out aswell, vaguely hearing Richie saying something along the lines of; ‘this fortune cookie is looking at me’, but she doesn’t have any time to properly listen to it. 

She runs away, still trying to whack the thing away from her, but it is persistent. She takes a step back, not realizing that there was a chair standing behind her. She falls backwards harshly, banging her head against the floor. She hears Mike call out to her, but as she tries to lift her head, the only thing she sees is a bright white light. ’Don’t look at it’, she hears someone scream. She’s already looking though, and she tries to stay awake, but before long, her head falls backwards again, and she passes out.


	2. Chapter 2

‘Shit do you think Bowers got to her?’

A hand was touching her forehead, softly moving her head back and forth. Emily jumped up, slapping the hand away. She had to shut her eyes at the blinding light that seemed to burn her eyes away. It took a few seconds before everything came back to her, about her dad, the losers club and the Jade oriental. Her eyes snapped open once more at the thought of the restaurant. Her eyes made eye contact with a boy, most likely her own age, who was looking like a deer in headlights. Emily looked around, but she wasn’t in the restaurant anymore.

Instead she was in some sort of back alley. It looked disgusting, there was trash on the ground all around her, and she was pretty sure she was sitting on what used to be a cradle of beer. It sure as hell smelled like it. ‘Where am I’? Emily asked, her voice sounding gravely, most likely because she just woke up.

She turned back toward the boy, finally noticing that there were more people than just the two of them. Behind the boy there were 5 other boys, and one girl. Emily blinked in shock once she focused on one boy in particular. The curly haired boy did not seem like he wanted to be here at all, he had a scowl on his face and he was trying his best to put distance between him and herself. He was wearing a Kippah, and dressed a lot more fancy than the other boys, and girl did, he dressed like an adult man in a kids body. He also looked an insane amount of Stan. Emily frowned as she kept staring, the resemblance between the boy and her father were remarkable. The boy in turn opted to glare at her.

‘Can we go now, she woke up and who knows how she got here anyway?’ Emily was wondering the same thing. The last thing she remembered was falling in the restaurant, and although she didn’t know the adults all that well, she had never suspected that they would just leave her on the street.

‘Who are you guys’? Emily asked choosing to ignore the Stan look alike.

‘I’m B-b-bill, the first boy told her. She took notice of his stutter immediately, but he looked embarrassed so she didn’t comment on it. She knew what it felt like to have people judging you for something you couldn’t help. ‘Wait, did you just say Bill?’ Emily frowned at him, and at her question, his eyebrows rose up.

‘Y-y-Yeah, why?’ Bill asked, sounding confused. Emily tore her eyes away from him staring at the others. She didn’t understand what the hell was going on. ‘My names is Beverly’, the redhead introduced herself, ‘but you can call me Bev’, both Beverly and Emily said at the same time. ‘Wtf new girl’, another boy, one with magnifying classes spoke up. ‘The names Richie, but the ladies call me Trashmouth, want to find out why?’ He asked with a smirk.

‘Beep beep Richie’, another boy bristled. ‘You think you’re so funny huh, dickwad? As if any girl would be into you and your Trashmouth,’ he spoke bitterly. Richie continued unfazed. ‘Don’t worry Eddie Spaghetti, you know your mom is still the only one for me’.

Eddie, Richie, Bill and Beverly. Emily started to feel lightheaded, the panic spreading like a wildfire. Eddie and Richie were still bickering, but Bill and Beverly were looking at her questionably.

‘I’m Ben’, a boy shyly spoke up, while shuffling back and forth on his feet. It was clear that the boy was self-conscious and didn’t have a lot of confidence, but Emily thought he looked quite nice. ‘Ben’, she repeated. He nodded his head timidly, while looking down at his shoes, unable to make eye contact with her.

If their names were all the same as the adults in the restaurant, then, ‘Mike’, a boy with a white overall spoke, confirming her suspicions. Emily’s breathing picked up, all of these kids looked eerily similar to the losers club she had met only 3 hours ago . At least, she thought it was three hours ago, she wasn’t sure what day it was, and how long she had been laying in that back alley. If all of them were the people her dad wrote these letters too, than her dad- lookalike, should be called Stan as well.

Her fist clenched together tightly, she was sure she was absolutely losing her mind. There was no way that these kids were the same people she had met as adults. Still, she couldn’t help the way her eyes hopefully looked into the last boy’s eyes, the only one who hadn’t introduced himself yet. He was looking at her too, and Emily felt the shared looks turning into a staring match. She felt the hostile demeanor aimed towards her, and she wondered what she had even done to deserve that behavior.

‘Stan’? She asked softly, while her voice shook. The boy broke eye contact at that, a surprised look crossing over his face before covering it up and putting on a blank face. He nodded solemnly, but instead of making eye contact, this time he stepped another step back.

‘How did you know that? Are you a friend of Bowers?’ Stan asked her, but Emily was too busy to focus on not crying to comprehend his question. This had to have something to do with what happened in the Jade Oriental.

This IT that Bill had been talking about. She thought back about the fortune cookie attacking her, about her falling flat on her back and passing out. Bill had talked about this IT transforming into the things you feared most, and maybe that was what was happening right now. Could IT transfer into humans? It sure seemed like it.

She just had to think about this logically. That’s what she always did; best case scenario, this was just a dream. Emily pinched herself but it did nothing except sting, not a dream then. The other option was that this was IT, and he was trying to trick her for whatever reason that may be. She didn’t allow herself to dwell on the third explanation, which was that she was send into the past. She wasn’t sure she could handle being in the vast proximity of her dad.

Back to option two, this was this IT. Would it help if she pretended that she wasn’t on to what IT was doing? It certainly wouldn’t hurt to try. She smiled, a wobbly, tired smile that seemed more like a grimace. ‘I have no idea, who this Bowers guy is’. She told Stan, standing up for the first time since she woke up. She stumbled forward, but Richie and Bill held her back. ‘E-e-easy, you m-m-must have t-t-aken a nasty f-f-fall.’

It wasn’t, but she didn’t know what other excuse she was supposed to come up with. She turned her smile to Bill, nodding her head, but stopping once she realized she was only worsening her headache. ‘Yeah, I fell while I was trying to chase my dog’. She told him. Emily had always had an excellent poker face, and she hoped it wasn’t failing her now.

The losers seemed convinced, even though Stan was still sharply watching her. ‘Did you find him’? Richie asked, adjusting his glasses to stabilize them. Emily shook her head, trying to seem sad as she told them that the dog had been too fast for her. It wasn’t hard to be sad as she thought about all the things that had happened in the last couple of days.

‘I hope you find him’, Ben said hopefully, flashing his big smile as Emily looked at him. ‘I’ve never seen you around here, are you new?’ Stan asked, sounding too laid back to have it come across convincing. Emily’s breath stocked, it was the same type of voice her dad would use against her as her tried to figure out if she was lying about something.

Emily didn’t trust her voice, so instead she nodded. She hadn’t even interpreted the question, but she was too afraid to.

‘So where do you live’? Eddie asked, while trying to pry Richie’s hands of his arm, the scowl on his face wavering as his smile threatened to break through.

Emily hadn’t thought of that, at all. She didn’t what she was supposed to answer. If this really was IT, why hadn’t he done anything yet? Besides, it was shocking to see her father this young, but it wasn’t exactly scary. Not like the thing attacking her had been.

‘I, I don’t have a house yet’, she said, ‘I came early, my parents still had some business to take care of at home’. She gulped, it was a bad excuse and she knew it. Still though, it was hard I come up with answers on the spot, especially since she wasn’t sure what was happening. 

‘Oh, so where will you be staying?’ Richie inquired. Emily looked around hopeless. She had no idea.

‘W-w-ere h-h-having a s-s-sleepover, I-if you w-w-wanna come?’ Bill questioned, and Emily felt a surge of gratitude towards him. ‘Yeah, that would be great’.

Richie hooted, to which Eddie shut him a look as if to say that he should stop it.

‘B-b-ev is r-r-riding white m-m-e, but y-y-you can r-r-ride w-w-ith Stan.’ Bill said. Stan’s head turned so quickly it almost sounded like his neck broke. He mustered the most angry look at Bill, turning his glare towards Emily, before huffing, turning around and leaving his bike there, as he walked down the street. It was still for a couple of seconds, nobody daring to move an inch. Richie was the first one that spoke up. ‘I’ll go after him’, he sighed as he too turned and walked after Stan. It was becoming quite obvious that Richie and Stan cared about each other.

Emily felt like crying all over again. She had never been on the receiving end of that look from her dad. He rarely even got that angry, only when the neighbor would once again ride his car into the mailbox after a night of partying, and if one of his customers called him to complain when he was at home. It may not have even been her dad, but it still hurt.

She just wanted to go home, to her mom, so she could be mad at her father in peace. ‘He’s just worried about us, bowers has been really vicious lately’, Bev explained. 

‘Who’s bowers?’ Emily shrugged helplessly, her dad hadn’t said much about his childhood.

Ben looked down, his hand grazing his shirt near the underside of his belly, hissing once his hand made contact with something. ‘A bully’, Eddie answered.

‘Well, I don’t know him at all, so don’t worry. I have no plans in bullying you guys. I mean I don’t even have friends’, Emily mumbled bashfully. It wasn’t exactly true, she did have a best friend, but she didn’t really think that counted.

The group smiled. ‘W-w-well you d-d-do now’, bill smiled.

‘Welcome to the losers club, new chick’. Richie beloved as him and Stan approached the group again. Stan still looked reluctant, but he didn’t seem as mad anymore.

‘Oh right, My names is Emily’ she flushed.

‘Hey Emily’. Mike had the kindest smile on his face as he said this, and he already turned towards his bike, getting on it. ‘You can ride with me if you want?’

Stan sighed, ‘or with me, you can also ride with me’. He said looking apprehensive, still though, he offered, and that made Emily more happy then she would have liked.

Nevertheless, she turned around towards mike, ‘thank you, but it’s fine. I’ll just ride with Mike’. Stan nodded, quickly getting his bike as well, and with Bill the leading, the group got on their way.

——————————————————————

Stan rolled his eyes for what felt like the thousandth time. Even though it was starting to get a bit annoying, Emily couldn’t help but giggle at the way Richie and Eddie were still bickering. It was endearing to see. She had been at Bill’s house for about 3 hours now, and it was becoming clear that these people really got along well with Stan, and were very close with one another. They were accepting and kind, and they made Emily feel right at home in their group. Richie could be a bit much at times , and Eddie freaked her out a bit with his rants about how she shouldn’t sit on a dirty floor, do you know how much bacteria were on there? Still, they were a fun group, each with their own personalities, qualities and opinions of their own.

Currently they were playing 20 questions, as they said they wanted to get to know Emily better. She had, of course agreed, but it was only after answering several questions that she had the insight to lie a bit. She didn’t want IT to know too much about her, and even if this was really her dad, she couldn’t make it weird by telling him all the stuff his daughter would like to do in the future. They had the usual questions like what are your hobbies (Theater and reading), what do you want do when you grow up (teacher), what was the name of your dog? 

Though everyone was nice, Stan still seemed very uncomfortable with her being there. It hurt. She had always been close with her dad. They would hang out every Sunday, whether it was making a puzzle or going to a theatre, it was their hang out day. Even if they had a fight, which happened from time to time, they would never go to bed without making up. He always listened respectfully to her opinions, even if it didn’t really make sense. He was just a great father in general, and a respectful man.

Emily could definitely see that in younger Stan, but it seemed as if this Stan had trouble hiding his distrust towards everything. She could see how happy and open he was with his friends, but he wasn’t at all like that with her. With her, he was stiff as a board, watching her like a hawk would watch its prey, as if waiting until she made a mishap.

It was better than when she had woken up too though, as he would sometimes give her reserved smile. The smiles were obviously fake, but Emily still appreciated the effort. He asked her about where she came from. Emily wanted to say Atlanta, but she didn’t want to give too much away, so she told the group that she came from Brooklyn. Stan then had asked about her parents, and it was clear he was trying to figure out what her intentions were. Bill had given him a warning look and Stan had backed off, but Emily had felt very faint in that moment.

‘you aren’t very loud, are you new girl’? Richie asked her. It was true. Her mother had once joked that Emily had the quietness of her father, only without his weird sense of humor. Emily was quite, and could really enjoy jokes crude or not, but she could never come up with jokes herself. She shrugged towards Richie, proving his point more with a smirk, and Richie laughed with her. Her attention was once again drawn towards Bill, who was fidgeting on the floor where he was seated. He had been doing that for the past hour. As Emily and Bill made eye contact, he smiled and stood up, brushing his pants as he did so. ‘I’m just going to grab some more drinks’, he said as he walked out of the room.

‘I’m sorry’, Stan mumbled suddenly from beside Emily. She turned her body towards Stan, indicating to him that she was listening. ‘I shouldn’t have been so rude to you’, he finished. She smiled, feeling a little lighter at his words, he was starting to remind her more and more of her dad. ‘It’s okay, I guess I was kind of strange’, Emily said.

Stan smiled back at her, and this time, it was genuine. He still didn’t look like her trusted her completely, but it was clear he had taken, at least a slight, liking toward her. Before anything else could be said, the door of Bill’s room was thrown open again. Bill was heaving slightly. He was holding what seemed to be a map clenched in his fist. ‘I g-g-got it’, he said while looking around the room. As he looked at Emily his eyes widened, as if he had forgotten that she was there.

Eddie seemed to jump in to help him. ‘hey Emily, do you think you could clean up the kitchen? It’s a weird tradition we have, to clean up the kitchen yeah. So because your new you should do it. Do you know how many bacteria’s there are in a kitchen. My mom said she had a friend that died because some of the bacteria’s of her kitchen table got into her soup and-‘

‘Okay, Eddie thanks for that detailed story,’ Stan said, cutting off Eddie’s rant successfully. ‘I’m sure she gets the gist by now’.

Emily frowned, it was a weird story, but she wasn’t exactly going to question it. Especially not because her story was also suspicious, and they didn’t push her about it too much. She nodded, already begin to stand up. ‘yeah of course, where will you guys be’? She asked turning around at the door to face the group.

‘The garage, we’re going to look through some of Bill’s old stuff’. Beverly answered. All of the losers gave her a tight smile before getting up themselves

Emily accepted this answer and started her way to the kitchen, Bill had showed her around when she had first gotten here. She heard the others go to the garage, and she felt the need to follow them. It was obvious that they were hiding something. If there was anything that described Emily well, it was that she was very curious. Still, she showed the respect her parents had taught her, and she stayed in the kitchen. It didn’t look like the kitchen needed any cleaning to her, as they had only been into the kitchen to grab some drinks and chips, but she still searched the cabinets to find a washcloth.

Normally, she wouldn’t check someone’s cabinets either, but Bill hadn’t told her were any of the stuff was to clean, so she had to figure it out herself. She held the washcloth under cold water and added a cleaning soap before beginning to wipe it across every surface of the kitchen. This wasn’t usually her chore. This was what her mom did. Emily herself always did the dishes while her mom cleaned the kitchen, and her dad would put everything away that Emily had just dried.

It was a weird thought to have, a random one, but for some reason she wished there were dished she could do. Just to get into a familiar setting. Just as this thought had she heard screaming coming from the garage.

She dropped the washcloth and ran towards the door she had seen the losers disappears through. The door was locked, she couldn’t get it open. It freaked her out and for a second she did nothing but stare at the door. Emily suddenly had a flashback to seeing her mom standing at the bathroom door, screaming her father’s name but getting no answer. The screaming still continued. It tore her from her flashback as she once again tried to open the door. As soon as she did, the screaming stopped.

Emily banged her fist against the door. ‘Guys, guys are you okay’? She screamed, her mind instantly thinking of all the bad possibilities that could have happened. A loud crash stopped her from trying to open the door once more. The sounds were coming from the living room, but Emily was too scared to go and see. Another crash caused her to take two steps forward, peering her head around the door that lead into the living room. She couldn’t see anything from where she was standing, so reluctantly, she let go of the doorknob she was still holding. She took another step forward until she was fully in the door opening.

There was a vase laying broken into the middle of the room, but besides that, Emily couldn’t see anything. She walked towards the vase and bowed down, already picking up several pieces. She felt a looming presence behind her suddenly, and in her hurry to get up she felt forward into the sharp pieces of the vase. She held her hands out, and felt the pieces piercing her skin. She hissed instantly jumping up, taking a look at her hand who had instantly started bleeding. A gloved hand landed on her shoulder, causing her breath to stock. The glove was white, and the hand that was in it was gripping so tight was starting to hurt.

Slowly Emily turned around, the blood draining from her face, her mount opening as if to scream, but no sound came out. Before her stood a clown. That was the best way to describe him, though right away you could tell that he wasn’t just a clown. His mount opened so wide that Emily could see the rows of teeth inside of it. He looked like he was going to kill her. However, when he reached his other hand towards her neck, he himself stopped. His mount closed again slightly, and turned his face so that Emily could see his eyes. They were yellow.

He tilted his head, and got his face closer to her. Emily could see from the corner of her eyes that there was a poke form a fireplace, right within her reach. She could reach out and use the poke as a weapon to defend herself. As she tried to though, she felt her hands shake so much, she had never felt so scared before, and she knew she would never have the courage to fight this thing.

The clown seemed to smell her, drawing his head back as fast as he did. It seemed confused. With a gasp, Emily realized that this was the IT that Bill had told her about. A smirk spread across IT’s face. It wasn’t nearly as playful as the smirk Richie god when he tried to annoy someone. No, this smirk was pure evil. ‘Uris, huh?’ The clown giggled, and finally Emily found her voice. She screamed as loud as she could. The door leading up to the garage began to pounce, this time from the other side. She could hear her name being called, but she was too busy screaming to truly notice it. How did this thing know that? She only looked away from the clowns eyes when she heard gasps. The losers club was now standing in the living room, right in front of both Emily and the clown.

Mike sprinted forward, grabbing the poke Emily had been too afraid to reach for. Before he could swing it towards IT, he drew back, letting go of Emily. The clown kept smirking, walking backwards, not saying a word anymore. Only when he disappeared did Emily collapse onto Mike.

Stan and Eddie ran forward towards her aswell. Richie, Bill and Ben ran out of the room to see where IT had gone off too, but ultimately didn’t see anything as they returned empty handed. Emily started sobbing , the pure fear draining her of any inhibitions both mentally and physically. Mike had tried to attack IT, which meant that there was no doubt about it anymore, Emily really was send to the past. Stan, who was sitting in her right side grabbed her arm to look at the wounds the shard of glass had left.

He was careful not to touch any of the blood. Emily knew that this was because he didn’t like any of his stuff dirty, but she didn’t think about that as she hurled herself towards him, gripping him tightly. Stan went rigid, but she didn’t let him go. This was her dad, even if he didn’t know it.

She was so mad at him for leaving her, so furious, but right now he was here. Even if he wasn’t the dad she knew, he was still her dad. He still smelled like vanilla and safety, or maybe he had always smelled that way. Whatever it was, Emily didn’t want to let go of him, she had missed him so much. She heard Richie chuckle awkwardly behind her. ‘Okay, Emily, let doctor K look at the wounds’.

‘Shut the fuck up asshat’, Eddie spewed out, but he did pulled Emily’s arm towards him, taking a look at the hand himself. Emily pulled away from Stan, the tears flowing freely. She turned her body towards Eddie, and settled back against the wall once more. Eddie started pulling out pieces of shards and she cringed, but didn’t pull her hand away.

Though Stan still sat uncomfortable, and shuffled back a little further away from her, he didn’t get up and leave, he stayed by her side, even if he was undoubtedly dying inside at the blood on his shirt. It made Emily’s tears slow, at least her father still cared, young or not.

As Eddie did his best to fix her up, there was only one thing on her mind. What the hell is she supposed to do now?


	3. Chapter 3

Emily had been staying with Beverly for the past 3 days. She spend the first night, after her encounter with IT, at Eddie’s house, but his mother was driving her crazy so instead, she ended up sneaking in Bev’s apartment before her dad came home every night. The losers had questions as to why her parents were just leaving there daughter out on the street without a place to stay, but Emily had lied and said that she was supposed to spend time with her grandmother, but she enjoyed spending time with them more. It wasn’t the best excuses, but she was pretty sure that the losers thought that she might have had some troubles with her parents, and they were too kind to question her about it. So, without second thought, Beverly had suggested that she came to stay with her for a couple of days. She got along well with Bev, and she liked spending time with her, as she did with all the losers, but she liked spending time with Stan more.

It was obvious to her why, but all the other losers, including Stan himself, found it quite weird. Richie had laughed about it once, accusing her of having a crush on Stan. Emily had gagged, before she realized that that might seem insensitive. Still though it was awkward whenever Richie brought up crushes, and a few times Emily had to walk away from the group, before Richie would realize that he was taking it too far and stop. Stan himself seemed disgusted with the idea of having a crush on Emily, which she thanked the gods for, but the whole thing had caused Emily more troubles than she would have liked to admit.

After the whole debacle of seeing IT in Bill’s house Emily had panicked for another hour before Bill had finally explained what IT was. He gave the same explanation that adult Bill had given her back in the restaurant, only now Emily knew for a fact that IT was real. She found out that IT could also be called Pennywise, and that the monster came back every 27 years to kill children and feed, before going back into hibernation. Bill had wanted to go to ‘Neibolt’ right away, even going as far as grabbing his bike, but Bev and Mike had convinced him to think about things rationally, promising him that when they had a plane, they would go after IT. Bill wasn’t glad with that decision, he so desperately wanted Georgie to be alive, but after he had been restraint and he came to the conclusion that he wouldn’t be cut loose in a while, he had accepted and started making plans straight away.

She heard stories about how each of them had seen IT, with the exception of Richie, and what it was they were most afraid off. Even Stan had told him how he saw IT, albeit a bit apprehensive. She learned about Mike’s parents and Bill’s brother, about Beverly and her father and the pressure Stan’s dad put on him, she found out how Eddie’s mother would treat him, and how lonely Ben felt before meeting the losers.

She noticed how both Bill and Ben looked at Bev when they thought no one was looking, and she was pretty sure that it was Ben who wrote the poem that Beverly couldn’t stop gushing about. It was safe to say that she learned a lot in the days of her being here. In a way, it made Emily feel excited.

She had a few good friends back in Atlanta, but these group of people seemed like family, and they were accepting her in the group as if they had known her all their life. She was even more excited about the fact that after 4 days of hanging out with the losers Stan seemed to have finally started trusted her. She was unsure how she felt towards the entire thing with her dad. On the one hand, she was still so hurt and mad about the fact that he would just leave her like that, without even a letter trying to explain the whole thing, but on the other hand, she had now felt the mind numbing fear of being in front of IT, and she knew that she would do everything in her power to avoid a confrontation again.

She still liked spending time with him, although she was conflicted about the whole thing. He was still growing into the man that would become her father, but it was nice to know that he too, like she was struggling to becoming a young adult, had struggled to grow up. Stan in turn, when he finally did start to like her, really enjoyed spending time with her because he could talk about his birds to her, and she would either fill the silent space with knowledge of her own, or she would listen intently to what he was saying. He had no idea that he was the one who taught her everything she knew.

She hadn’t hung out with Stan outside of the group, but that was going to change. She had asked Stan if he wanted to go ride his bike with her, and go bird seeing. They would do so early in the morning, and after they could meet up with the other losers to try and find more intel on Pennywise. Stan had agreed, and he seemed excited, even if that enthusiasm was only there for the birds. Richie had looked pretty smug, but Emily had ignored him, because she couldn’t come up with an excuse fast enough to wanting to hang out with only Stan.

They had decided to meet up really early, as they would be more likely to see more birds if everything was still mostly quiet, and the sun wasn’t up yet.

They ended up meeting at 6, at the quarry, and Emily had brought some coffee, because she was not used to getting up that early. Stan had snickered when he saw her coming, but he hadn’t commented on it, instead choosing to find a good spot to watch the birds. They found one under a willow tree, choosing to place their bikes again it’s stem. Stan refused to sit on the grass, as Emily had expected, so they had laid a plaid first, before making themselves comfortable.

It was still for a long time, Stan was looking towards the sky with his binoculars, as Emily swiped through the pages of his bird book. Emily was content, there wasn’t a tense silence, both were relaxed, doing their own thing, but still reveling in each other’s presence. Emily thought back on nights spend with her mom, watching a movie or reading a book, sometimes she would be on her phone, with her dad completing a puzzle, or making crosswords. Not one of them would do something to the other, but they still enjoyed being near each other.

Stan would sometimes speak up, pointing to a bird and giving a brief amount of information about it. Emily would give each of the birds a nickname based on the quirks mentioned in the bird book. Both of them bursted out laughing when Stan made a bird pun, and It was a fun moment, that Emily would surely treasure for the rest of her life. Whenever she got sad about her dad, at least she could remember this moment.

She was a little shocked when this thought caused her to finally think back to her mother, who was still very much upset and grieving, and no doubt worrying more than she ever had in her life. Emily had never been gone for as long as she was now, and she hadn’t called at all the last few days.

She wondered if her dad’s funeral had already happened, if she had missed her last change to say goodbye to her dad. The thought made her sad, the smile slowly melting of her face. Stan noticed, as he too stopped laughing, clearly being out of his comfort zone before placing his hand on her shoulder, squeezing softly. They hadn’t hugged after the moment in Neibolt, after IT had tried to attack her. Stanley really didn’t liked to be hugged it seemed, but god Emily wanted too, so bad.

She didn’t, instead smiling at him to reassure him that she was alright. Stan opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. ‘I’m really glad we did this’, he settled on, and it seemed like he wanted to say more, but before he could, the other losers arrived. ‘hey losers, we were looking for you’, Richie called out. Emily smiled once more at Stan, before turning around and facing the others.

‘Damnit Richie you scared away the birds’, Stan scowled. Richie remained unfazed, shrugging his shoulders, settling down next to Stan while throwing an arm around him. ‘You’ve had enough time to look at them, besides, you love me more than your birds’. While he was speaking, the other losers joined them on the ground, Ben already talking to Beverly, and Bill rolling his eyes at Richie’s speech. ‘I bet that if you could, you’d marry me’, Richie smirked, puckering his lips towards Stan, as if asking for a kiss.

‘I would rather kill myself’. Stan retorted, leaning away from Richie as far as he could while still trapped under his arm. Mike, Eddie, Bill, Bev and Richie all laughed, but Emily felt like a hand was coiled tightly around her neck. She heaved in a breath and Mike, who was sitting next to her, worriedly turned his gaze on her.

‘Emily, are you okay?’ he asked, causing the others to look at what was unfolding. Emily jumped up, she needed to get away from them for a moment, so she could collect her thoughts. ‘That isn’t funny Stan’, she ground out, practically sprinting away from the group. She could feel the gazes of the losers as they continued to stare, but she tried to ignore it the best she could.

She continued walking until she couldn’t see any of the losers anymore, and until she came across a tree big enough to be able to carry her. She climbed it, not going too high, but still high enough that she could see across the field the three was located in. She saw Beverly coming her way, and for a second she thought about hiding away. She decided against it though, and waited until Bev was close enough to speak up.

‘I’m sorry, it was stupid.’ She said, as she helped Bev up on the branch she was sitting on. ‘Don’t apologize’, Bev said, ‘I just wanted to know if you were okay. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want too, but I do want you to know that I’m here for you, and I’ll listen to you whenever you need me too’.

Emily could have easily lied, she could have made up a stupid story, or she could have even told Bev that she didn’t want to talk about it, and Beverly would have accepted it. But she was so tired, so tired of having to keep the charades up, so tired of having to lie and cheat and not saying to much that could betray her. She hadn’t had a day of rest were she could just process everything after her father’s suicide, instead she was constantly running around, meeting new people and trying hard to make sense of things. So instead of lying to Bev, she bursted out crying. Bev shuffled closer, wrapping her arms around Emily.

‘Bev, I’m about to say something crazy, but I need you to hear me out an believe me’.

Beverly held on tighter, ‘Sweetie, I’ve seen blood spewed out of my bathroom drain, and it turned out to be a clowns doing, there’s nothing you can say that will sound crazy to me.’

Despite the heaviness of what Emily was about to say, she couldn’t help but laugh.

‘you, might be surprised’. She said, hugging Beverly back as tight as Bev held her.

‘I’m not from here’, Emily started.

‘Yeah I know, you just moved here like 4 days ago’, Bev laughed, already sounding a little confused.

‘That’s not what I meant. I’m not from here, as in this time. I’m from the future.’ Emily tried again, speaking slowly as she waited for the coin to drop.

Beverly pulled back a bit, still keeping her arms encircled around Emily. ‘Wait what’? She asked, her eyebrows knitted together.

‘I’m Stan’s daughter from the future. I know that sounds crazy, I do, but it’s the truth. I met you in a restaurant, about like 27 years into the future, but something happened and all of a sudden I was here, and I don’t know how that’s even possible, but here I am, and I just .. I need you to believe me Bev. I don’t know how to fix this.’ Emily rambled, scared to look up at Bev.

Beverly paused to stare at Emily for a few seconds, taking in her disheveled state.

‘please. You must know that nothing is impossible or off limits anymore after the whole clown debacle’.

‘I believe you’, Bev said and Emily let out a shaky breath, so glad that someone was on her side, ‘but I need you to tell me everything’.

And so she did, she explained the whole thing. She explained how she had met the adult losers in the restaurant, how the fortune cookies had turned into monsters, and she even reluctantly told Bev about her father’s suicide. It was quite for a while after that revelation, neither Bev nor Emily knew what to say.

‘You can’t tell him’, was the first thing out of Emily’s mouth. ‘I don’t know how to explain it, and I don’t want to have to tell him about his own suicide.’

Bev nodded solemnly. ‘I promise I won’t say anything, and hey Ems, we’ll figure something out alright? We got your back, even if none of the others know what’s really going here’.

It felt good to have finally confided in somebody, and Emily was glad she took the risk. At the very least she now had somebody to that she could vent too, and she was fully prepared to take that offer as soon as possible. Before she could though, the losers club appeared at the edge of the field. Bev and Emily both jumped down from their places in the three, walking up to meet them halfway.

‘We were worried about you guys’, Ben said, but Emily knew he was mostly worried about Bev. It didn’t faze her, Ben’s crush was adorable, and it was sweet to see how much he cared about her.

‘My bad, I kept boring Bev with my stories’, Emily lied, the lie slipping off her tongue like it was nothing. ‘Are we still on for grabbing a milkshake’?

Everybody nodded, Richie pumping his fist into the air, ‘Finally’, he said. Emily chuckled, and the losers soon started on their way towards the dinner.

She hung out near the back of the group, playing with the hem of her sweatshirt, and she hadn’t even noticed Stan slowing his pace to match hers until he was walking right beside her.

‘I’m sorry. That joke was insensitive’, he apologized. It was clear that Stan would never intentionally hurt anybody, and he was quick to admit whenever he was wrong. Emily walked closer to him, bumping into him with her shoulder. ‘It’s fine, it’s not like you could have known anyway’.

Stan abruptly stopped, causing Emily to falter in her step as well. She turned her body towards him, and in an instant, he was hugging her. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, Stan had already let go and started walking again. Emily smiled timidly, catching up with the rest of the group as fast as Stan did. She caught Bev’s glance towards the two of them, but she didn’t say anything as she went back to talking to Bill. Still though, Emily could see the hint of her smile before she could hide it.

If nothing else, Emily was glad that her dad had such good friends while growing up.


	4. Chapter 4

‘Beverly, you know I love you, but you have got to stop talking about the poem for like five seconds,’ Emily groaned out, flopping back into the couch and pretending to smother herself. Beverly’s laugh carried out throughout the living room, as she tried to pluck the pillow away from Emily’s face. ‘I think it’s Bill’, Bev ignored her, and getting back to ranting about the poem.

Emily threw the pillow away from her face, letting out another loud groan. ‘I don’t think it’s Bill’, she replied. Beverly turned her head sharply, her face contorting into one of confusion. ‘ You don’t, how come? Who else could it be?’

Emily sat up, facing Beverly as best as she could, reaching out to grab the bloody card the poem as written on once more.

‘I don’t know, I just have a feeling. It might be Ben? I mean Ben is crazy about you, I’m pretty sure that he would do anything you asked of him, anything.’

Emily didn’t exactly want to spill Ben’s secret, but she was sure that if Bev would stop being so convinced it was Bill, she would realize what an amazing boy Ben was, and how good they would be together.

Besides, Emily was absolutely sure that it was Ben that had written the poem, as he had accidently told her, after Richie pushed him one to many times about his crush on Bev. They had been in the arcade, just Richie, Ben and her, though Ben and her were mostly watching Richie play. Ben was telling Emily about a romantic love story he was reading, and Richie had jokingly interrupted, saying that Ben should leave these stories to himself and then just recreate the scenes with Beverly. He had been jabbing at Ben for the entire day, and Ben had enough. He had stormed off and Emily went after him. Once outside of the arcade, Ben had admitted that he was the one that had written Bev the poem and Richie knew about it, and Ben was scared that Richie would tell on him. Emily promised to talk to Richie, which she did. Richie promised up and down that he would never tell Ben’s secret, and that he was just joking around.

Emily seemed to do that a lot here, mediate between people. The losers clearly had a lot of deep-rooted problems that showed in the way they interacted with others, and Emily felt compelled to try and help them. The losers were all amazing people, each with their flaws and plus points, and everyday Emily spend with them, she started to care about them more and more.

It was clear that the losers started to really care about her too, and it showed. Even though she was about the same age as them, they treated her like a little sister. She had met Henry, finally, even though she would have preferred to never ever met him. She had been with Eddie on their way to Barrens, where they would try and figure out a plan to find Georgie, as Bill was still obsessive over that, when they heard the word ‘fag’ being shouted at them. Eddie walked quicker, but Emily was not that smart and turned around to face the boy who called out to them. He was with three other people, Patrick, Victor and Belch, Emily would later learn.

Emily hadn’t realized the danger she was in, so she had stubbornly told Henry to ‘piss off’, as she wanted to help Eddy. Turns out that Henry was not opposed to hitting girls, and Emily had a blue eye to prove for it. Eddie had ran off, getting the others, because he knew he would never win alone against the entire Bowers gang. As the rest of the losers came as fast as they could to help Emily, Henry and the others ran off, seeing Henry’s father in his cop car driving around, shooting a deadly glare Henry’s way.

Henry dropped Emily on the ground harshly, Mike and Bill dropping beside her, already trying to access the damage. Richie, as always, couldn’t keep his mouth shut, ‘You best watch out next time fucker, mess with one of us, you mess with us all.’ Henry looked like he would come back for a second, but ultimately decided against it, walking away with the rest of his group.

Emily’s eye had hurt, but she recognized her luck, as she heard the losers story’s about what Henry had done to them. They had broken Richie’s glasses, carved into Ben stomach, called Beverly a slut every change they got, and what pissed her off the most, they rubbed Stan’s face into the snow until it bled. They were psychopaths she realized, and she hoped to god Henry would get what he deserved. It made her so mad that the losers were so helpless, they couldn’t tell their parents because what could they do, and they couldn’t tell the police either because the chief was Henry’s father.

Despite knowing how lucky she had been, Emily’s eye was killing her the first two days. Henry had gotten her good, she could barely open her eye, but thankfully Eddie had thought to put some ice on it. The swelling was down quite a bit by the next day, and it didn’t look as blue as it did the day before either. One good thing came from her altercation with Henry though. It seemed that now Stan had seen that the Bowers gang was after Emily too, he finally trusted her completely. He didn’t seem to stray away from her anymore, and was as honest to her as he as to the other losers. Bill had told her that he had never seen Stan adjust to someone as fast as he did with her, and Emily felt a little proud at that.

The bad thing about Bowers beating her up, was that the losers seemingly thought she was a wallflower that needed protection at all times. They would try and keep her away from any plans they made concerning Pennywise, and would never let her be alone, except if she had to go to the bathroom. She did her best to worm herself into conversation, and tried to participate in the plan, and the losers would mostly let her, but later they would try to minimize her role as best as they could. It frustrated Emily, but she didn’t say anything, as she knew how much this plan meant to Bill. She kept an eye on her dad, because of what he did in her time, but he had a stoic face if he wanted to, and if he thought about backing out, he didn’t show it. He didn’t help with making the plans either though, he would sit there and nod, but never suggest and idea of his own.

The plan as it stood was that the losers would distract IT, while Bill shot at it, hopefully killing IT efficiently. The details itself were still being worked out.

Emily thought that things were going well here. She had talked to Bev a lot about what happened in the future, and Bev and her would try to find a way to get her home, but Emily wasn’t in a hurry. She missed her mom of course, and her friends in Atlanta, but she knew that this would be the only change she would get to spend some more time with her father. The faster she went back to her time, the less time she would have with him.

So everything was fine really, and moments like the one she was having with Bev, laughing and gossiping on the couch, made her happy. Suddenly, a knock on the door startled her and Bev. They stopped laughing instantly, both of them more than a little paranoid after their encounters with IT. Beverly placed her hand against her lips in a sshh sign, and Emily got up quietly, going to hide in Beverly’s bedroom. This was their routine if Bev’s dad came home, or if anyone knocked on the door. Bev would open up, while Emily hid, so no one would find out that she was hidden in Beverly’s house. She left the door to Bev’s room open slightly, so she could carefully peer through it to see who was at the door. She could hear Bev’s voice carrying through the apartment, and by the sounds of it, it was just the mailman knocking on the door.

Emily tensed, a gust of wind coming from behind her caused her to shiver. She turned around, and was shocked to find the window in Beverly’s room open, leading towards the emergency exit stairs, towards the back alley. Emily closed the door softly, effectively shutting Bev’s voice out. She still didn’t want anyone to know she was here. If the mailman would find out, he might tell Bev’s dad, and neither of them wanted that.

She walked over to the window slowly, curiosity killed the cat they always say, and curiosity may be Emily’s greatest weakness. She peered out of the window, but saw nothing. Not a thing. Shrugging Emily pulled back, closing the window with soft thud. She was just convincing herself that she must have accidently opened it because she wanted some air, as she suddenly felt an intense pain on the side of her head. She felt to the ground and groaned, her hand instantly reaching up to the side where she felt a warm liquid. She was bleeding. She looked up to see The clown, grinning devilish at her, before her started to contorted into something else. In front her, her father now stood. Not the young Stan, but the adult one. Her father who had killed himself.

She knew logically, that this wasn’t her real father, he couldn’t be, because he was dead, but all logic flew out of the window the moment Emily laid eyes on him. ‘Dad’, she croaked out, forgetting for a second why she was hiding in Beverly’s room. IT dad looked at her, but didn’t step forward, or did anything to help Emily get up. Emily scrambled up against the wall, her hand cradling the wound, but she didn’t take her eyes of her father for even a split second. IT dad bowed down now, grabbing Emily’s ankle, dragging her across the floor towards him. It seemed as if the touch made Emily’s brain work again, as she realized that this wasn’t her dad, but Pennywise.

She screamed, loudly, and Beverly came crashing into the room. She dove forward, grabbing Emily by the arms and dragging her in the opposite direction of pennywise. He was still in her dad’s form, and he didn’t let go, no matter how hard Beverly pulled. Suddenly he smirked, something Emily had never seen him do, he either smiled genuinely, or he didn’t smile at all. ‘Are you just as much of a coward as I was Emily’? He asked. Emily was shocked, he sounded just like her real father. It caused anger to course through Emily’s body, spreading like a wildfire, and she pulled her leg back, and stomped on his face. Out of shock IT let her go, and he turned back into a clown instantly. Beverly dragged her back with her; closing her bedroom door with a loud bang.

‘My dad wasn’t a coward’, Emily screamed, thought she wasn’t sure if IT was still in the room.

‘Oh god Emily, we’ve got to get you to a hospital.’ Beverly cried out, and without taking their eyes off the door, the two girls stumbled back out of the apartment.

She didn’t need to go the hospital eventually. As the girls were riding Bev’s bike towards the hospital, the girls crossed paths with Ben and Mike, who had been on their way to them. As soon as they saw Emily and her head bleeding, they ushered the girls towards Stan’s house.

Mike, ever the voice reason, told them that it would be to hard to take Emily too the hospital, because questions would be asked, they would need an explanation that they didn’t have, and it may result in Emily’s parents being called. Beverly still wanted her to go the hospital, but Emily accepted that Mike was right. They would want to contact her family, and though the losers understood that her parents were a sensitive subject, the nurses and doctors at the hospitals undoubtably not be so understanding.

Instead of going to the hospital, Emily chose to go over to Stan’s house, where the others were gathered. It seemed that she getting beat up quite a lot as of late. Beverly, Mike, Ben and herself rang Stan’s door, and Emily hoped to that he would open soon, cause she wasn’t sure how long she would still be able to stand on her legs. Luckily Stan opened it as soon as the bell had rang. It seemed like his parents weren’t home. Emily was glad, she wasn’t particularly close with her grandparents, as they lived far away from her. Stan gasped as he saw Emily wobbling on her knees. He instantly pulled her inside of his house, wrapping her one arm around his shoulder, Mike doing the same to her other side, and guiding her up the stairs towards his bedroom, where everyone else was. Bill, Eddie and Richie jumped up once they all came in, hastily making room for her on the bed by shoving all the supplies on the side.

Mike and Stan carefully sat her down, Eddie taking Mike’s place beside her to look at her wound. He wouldn’t touch it, and he was squeamish because of the blood. ‘You really should become a doctor you know’, Emily laughed, but Eddie was to focused on the wound to respond. ‘Yep, definitely a doctor in progress’, she said absentmindedly once more. ‘Bev, go get towels and water, and bandages hurry’, Eddie barked out instructions, and Bev hurriedly went to get the items. Once she got back Eddie wasted no time in dipping the towel into the freezing water Bev had brought with her, before pressing it to Emily’s wound.

She hissed, and tried to get away from the sensations, but Stan was too much in her way for her to be able to move. Instead she reached out with her hand, trying that way to get rid of the excruciating pain, but once more Stan stopped her. He grabbed her wrist muttering; ‘let him, he knows what he’s doing.’

It reminded Emily of the time she had nearly been hit by a car, her mother dragged her backwards just in time, but Emily had sliced her knee open and had to have stitches. Her father had been called then too, and while her mother was crying and panicking, he remained calm and had held Emily’s hand as the doctor stitched her up. She had been crying, not because she was in pain, but because she was afraid of the doctor, and her father had told her the story of how him and her mother met to distract her.

It had worked of course. Only later did she realize that Stan must have been just as worried as her mom, only he did a better job of hiding it. Emily couldn’t quite remember, but she was pretty sure that they filled a lawsuit against the driver who had just taken off without checking if she was alright.

It did the trick now too, by the time Emily zoned back in, Eddie finished placing the last bandage on her head, looking satisfied with the result. ‘You get beat up a lot huh?’ Richie joked, and Emily and the others started laughing. Everyone expect Bill. ‘T-t-this stops n-n-now’, he said, getting up from his spot in the floor, already walking towards the door. ‘Bill, where are you going?’ Bev asked, getting up aswell.

‘To k-k-kill IT. My b-b-brother is down t-t-there, I h-h-have to h-h-help him. IT k-k-keeps hurting us b-b-because we l-l-let him, s-s-so I’m g-g-going a-a-after him n-n-now, and t-t-this time h-h-he won’t g-g-get away.’ Bill practically ran out of the room, the rest waiting half a second before scrambling up all the same. Everyone ran towards their bikes, Emily getting up behind Bev, as she had been in no condition to ride a bike on her own. Bill was an idiot, Emily thought bitterly as they rode towards the only place they could think Bill might have gone, the Neibolt house.

Bill was an idiot, the plan is even finished yet.

The bike came to a screeching halt in front of the house, looking menacing, seemingly looming over the losers club, and Emily gulped. She wasn’t too keen of getting into that house. ‘Bill wait’, Ben called out, and at the sound of his voice bill turned around.

‘The plan isn’t ready yet,’ Richie finished, skipping from one leg to the other, he seemed as nervous as Emily felt.

‘Look you don’t have to go in with me’, Bill said, ‘but what happens if another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty, or Ed Corcoran? Are you just gonna pretend like it’s happening like the rest of this stupid town? Cause I can’t. I go home and all I see is that Georgie isn’t there. His clothes, his toys, even his stupid stuffed animals, but not him. So for me, walking into this house is easier than walking into my own.’ Bill looked so determined as he said the words, it made Emily determined too. Fuck this clown, they were going to beat him.

‘Wow’, Richie breathed out, ‘he didn’t stutter once’.

Emily took a step forward, to join Bill inside the house, but Ben’s hand stopped her. ‘No’, he said, ‘not you.’

Emily frowned at him. ‘Why not me?’ She asked, looking around the group questioningly. They looked around nervously, not meeting her eye. It wasn’t like she wanted to go into the house. She was so scared, but these people were her friends, even family, literally. And for family, there was nothing that she wouldn’t do.

‘Someone has to be on lookout’, Stan said suddenly, ‘I’ll wait with you.’ Emily frowned, her dad looked absolutely mortified with idea of going inside the house , like he would rather kill himself than go in there. ‘W-w-who wants to s-s-stay out here?’ Bill asked and in an instant everyone except Beverly raised their hands.

They decided to let the straws decide, whoever got the shortest one had to go into the house, though Bill already said he would go in no matter what. Emily isn’t even allowed to pick a straw, she had to stay out there no matter what. The losers said it was because she was injured, but she knew it was because they didn’t want her to be in danger, though she couldn’t really argue, she was hurt, so she kept quite as the others picked their straws.

Stan’s face seemingly gives nothing away as he picked a straw, but Emily had known her father long enough to be able to tell that he was ecstatic as he picked a straw that was definitely not the shortest. Richie and Eddie picked the shortest ones, and Eddie didn’t even complain, though Emily would feel how scared all three boys were .

She wanted to say something, to wish them good luck, but she couldn’t think of anything to say, and before she could, they were already inside the house. Stan started crying, hiding his face away in Mike’s shoulder. ‘ I can’t go in that house Mike’, he sobbed. ‘I just can’t.’ It was strange, to see her father so scared and crying, because Emily had almost never seen her dad cry. The group that was still outside huddled together, and Emily gripped Stan’s arm and Ben’s wrist tightly. They stayed in their cocoon of warmth for a while, until they heard screaming from inside the house.

They broke apart quickly, all looking at the front door, hoping against all hope that Bill, Eddie and Richie would run out completely unharmed, but the door doesn’t budge. ‘We have to go in there’, Emily heard her own voice say, even though she didn’t realize she was about to say something. Beverly nodded, and because she did, Ben did too. Mike and Stan seemed like they wanted to say something, but Bev and Emily had already ran into the house, there was no time for hesitations, their friends were in trouble.

Emily could feel her heartbeat pounding so fast it’s hard to focus on anything else, but then she hears Richie breath out; ‘Eddie’, and she and Bev ran towards the sound. In her peripheral vision she could see that Ben, Stan and Mike were behind them, but she didn’t turn to get a better look. Bev froze in front of her, and when Emily looked up, she understood why. Eddie was sitting down, cradling his arm as it was clearly broken, over his face was white glove that belonged to IT, who was turned with his back towards him, yelling at Bill and Richie who stood on the opposite side of the room.

‘It was real enough for Georgie’, IT cackled, and he jumped forward towards Richie and Bill. Bev didn’t hesitate a second, she plunged an iron rod, straight into his eyes, and then jumped beside him towards Eddie. Bill and Richie also jumped forward, trying to get Eddie up and out of the door. There is a second of absolute silent, and then the screaming of the losers began. Emily rans forward into the room some more, Ben beside her, and Mike and Stan behind him. She wanted to help, but she didn’t know what to do, she couldn’t think straight in her gaze of panic.

IT turned around, going after Eddie once more, but then leaned back at the last minute, his menacing laugh filling the room. He then turned towards the group still at the door, slicing Ben’s stomach so fast nobody has time to respond. Emily dropped down on her knees, taking her jacket of and pressing it into Ben’s stomach, refusing to give pennywise a second of her time when Ben needed her.

It seemed that IT left the room then, as suddenly Bev was beside her, pushing everyone out, Bill and Mike carrying Eddie outside of the house. The second fresh air hit Emily, she wanted to take a five year nap, she was pretty sure that this encounter cost her at least 10 years of her life. The losers didn’t pause though, so she didn’t either, jumping back on Stan’s bike, not even thinking about it, and neither did Stan as they paddle away as fast as humanly possible.

Watching Eddie get taking away by his pathetic excuse of a mother was painful, and Emily wanted to help him, but she was once again rendered silent as his mother insulted each one of the losers, before grabbing him and taking him to the hospital. It was good Eddie was getting treatment though, Emily hoped the pain wasn’t to bad and if it was, she hoped it would get better soon.

As soon as the car was out of their sight, Bill turned back towards the group.

‘I-I-I saw the w-w-well, w-w-we know w-w-where it is now. Next t-t-time we’ll b-b-be better p-p-prepared.’ He said, so sure of his case, even though Eddie and Ben were badly injured. Emily looked up at Ben, who was indeed bleeding a lot, it made her worried, but for some reason she was scared to interrupt the atmosphere that hung around the group, she didn’t want to be the target of rage that was spreading across the room. Nobody responded to his words.

‘N-n-next time’, Bill tried again, but this time he was interrupted by Stan.

‘No, no next time Bill’. He screamed, his eyebrows set in a frown. ‘You’re insane.’

‘What do you mean no next time’? Emily asked, her fist clenching together.

‘I mean that I don’t wanna die, I would like to live. I’m never going back into that house’, Stan bristled.

‘Your friends need you,’ she screamed back to Stan. ‘ You’re just gonna leave them to deal with this on their own? Already? You are so different than I thought you were.’

Stan’s frown deepened. ‘You’ve barely known me for more than a week, you don’t know me at all.’

‘Clearly not, you know, maybe IT was right, maybe my father is a coward.’ Emily spat out, she was so mad. To her, her dad had seem invincible, and strong, he was her hero, and she looked up to him. But he wasn’t brave, or a hero. He was a coward, who left his friends to deal with all the problems. He didn’t deserve her adoration, because he hadn’t even written his own daughter a letter, because apparently she didn’t deserve and explanation.

Emily was furious at Stan for all sorts of reason, but most importantly, because she still loved him so much despite of all of this. She still wanted to go birdwatching with him, she still wanted make puzzles with him, she still wanted to hear him and his mother happily chatting in the kitchen while she made her homework in the other room.

She thought, stupidly, that if she saw her dad here, being brave and trying to protect his friends, that it would stop the conflict inside of her. Regardless of it being stupid, he was doing the opposite of that, and because of it, the conflict of love and hate inside of Emily just seemed to grow stronger, tearing her apart even more.

‘Emily’, Bev spoke up worriedly, she clearly saw where this was going. She wanted to help Emily, but Emily was to mad to think twice about what she was saying.

‘What does your father even have to do with this’? Stan asked, his hands waving as if to prove his point.

‘Because you are my father you dumb asshole’, Emily bellowed. Bev slapped her arm, trying to get her to stop talking, but it was already too late. The words were out in the open already. She vaguely heard Stan’s sharp intake of breath. Emily started heaving, heavy sobs rattling her entire body. She saw Stan’s face, looking so shocked, he had no idea what to even say. It was then that Emily realized what she had just did. She hesitated for another second, before turning around on her heels, and running like IT was after her.

‘Emily’, she could hear Beverly call after her, but Emily didn’t stop. She couldn’t believe how stupid she had been. She had just spilled her secret to Stan and now she would have nowhere to go. She ran until she physically couldn’t anymore, and then she dropped to her knees in the grass, her body still heaving with sobs.

‘Emily’, she heard Bev say once more, and that was weird, considering Emily had been running as fast as she could. As she looked behind her, It was clear that it wasn’t Bev, but instead IT stood directly behind her. His orange eyes were the last thing she saw, before she fell back on the grass, passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

Stan stared at Emily as she ran away, but he didn’t respond. He felt the world slip away from under his feet. Who the hell did this girl think she was? He turned his gaze towards Richie, who’s eyes were widened and looked even bigger now then they already did on regular days. Richie was his best friend, even though Stan couldn’t stand him sometimes, and so he looked at him for something, a conformation that whatever happened just then really happened, and it wasn’t all in Stan’s head. Richie however did nothing but stare, as if he himself couldn’t quite figure out what this entire day had been about. However, Richie knew Stan like the back of his hand, so he knew exactly what to do when he saw the look in Stan’s eyes, deflect.

‘I Wonder when she got dropped on her head one to many times am I right boys?’ Richie joked, adjusting the glasses, and trying desperately to lift the dark mood that feel upon the group.

‘Not now Richie’, Bev interjected, her mouth set into a thin line. Stan turned his gaze towards her then, after scanning the entire group. Out of all of them, she seemed the least confused, instead she looked thoughtful, as if still deciding how to approach this situation best.

‘Why not Beverly?’ Stan asked, his face sour. ‘He’s right, what the hell is she even talking about? I’m her father? I’m fucking thirteen.’

It seemed that their previous argument about IT was forgotten, instead everyone was looking at Stan, gauging his reaction. Richie opened his mouth to try and make another joke, but a sharp look from Bev shut him up.

‘Wait,’ Stan said, ‘why aren’t you surprised? Did you know about this? About whatever delusion she is dealing with?’ Stan looked at Beverly, but Beverly was pointedly not looking at him.

‘Are you kidding me? How long?’ Stan’s voice raised in hysteria, his arms waving around wildly.

‘Stan,’ Bev started, and her voice was shaking.

‘How long’, Stan asked again. His voice dropped down to a threatening tone, and Beverly shivered despite herself. Stan would never ever lay a finger on her she knew, but he was furious, and it sucked that Beverly was the target of his anger.

‘She told me last week okay, after you made those stupid jokes and we spend some time alone together. Look Stan I’m sorry, but she made me promise not to tell you. Besides it’s not like you believe her. Look at you, you look like you’re about to punch something or someone.’

‘That’s because I thought you were my friend Bev. I can’t believe you could hear something so absurd and still not tell me.’ Stan said, still visibly angry, though he was starting to calm down a bit. He was very observant, and rational, and he was starting to realize that getting mad at Beverly wasn’t going to solve anything.

‘What if she’s Pennywise who has been stalking us? What if this is just another one of his ploys?’ Stan uttered, his hands now desperately scrubbing at his pants, trying to get the non-existent crinkles away. He always did this when he was nervous, and it was his tell tale when he was lying too.

‘T-t-that doesn’t m-m-make any s-s-sense S-s-stan. W-w-why k-k-keep up the c-c-charades for s-s-so long?’ Bill inquired.

‘Are you saying you believe her Billiam’, Richie questioned, ‘cause if so that would mean Stan the man had sex and I don’t think Stan over here would just pop his cherry for anyone,’ Richie quipped, and while doing so he swung his arm around Stan’s shoulders.

‘Beep beep Richie’, Stan snapped back, though he didn’t push Richie’s arm away.

‘Bev what do you believe’? Mike asked, taking a step towards the group. Bev sighed.

‘Look, I admit that I was skeptical in the beginning too. But just look at what happened to us today. We got attacked by a demonic clown that lives in the sewers. Nothing about this is normal okay? And Emily she told me stuff, and you know how good I am at telling when people are lying, and I sincerely think that she was telling the truth. So yes, I believe her.’

‘Just because she believes that it’s true, doesn’t mean it is Beverly’, Stan grumbled.

‘Don’t call Bev a liar’, Ben interrupted, as always coming to Bev’s rescue. It would be endearing to Stan if he wasn’t so fucking irritated.

‘Why is everyone acting like what Emily just said is totally normal? Am I the only one who understands how crazy this is?’ Stan asked again. He looked towards Richie, who shrugged in response.

‘Fine’, he spat out, walking towards his bike and grabbing it with a huff.

‘Stan, where are you going?’ Richie shout out. The rest of the losers shuffled forward their bikes as well, like they were anticipating something bad to happen.

‘I’m going to find her. If you all believe her than fine, she has some explaining to do. I want to know where her delusions come from.’

He swung one leg over his bike, already pushing his feet, gaining speed before abruptly stopping at Bill’s voice.

‘S-S-Stan stop’, Bill said, and Stan did. All of the losers would if they were in Stan’s place. Bill didn’t even have to raise his voice. Whatever Bill said, goes. He had a curtain authority about him, and the losers without question followed him.

‘Y-y-you can’t j-j-just g-g-go at h-h-her Stan. Y-y-y-you need t-t-to calm d-d-down first. It’s n-n-no use i-i-if y-your just g-g-gonna yell a-at her.

Stan turned around slowly. The other losers watched on without saying a word, to see what Stan would do.

‘I’m calm, I’m not going to yell at her Bill,’ which as obviously a lie, Stan looked everything but calm. If anything, he looked mostly anxious.

Still though, Bill nodded solemnly, going to his own bike.

‘Don’t yell at her Stan, she’s been through a lot already’, Bev spoke, and as she and Stan made eye contact her eyes flickered downwards.

‘You know something, don’t you?’ Stan inquired.

Bev shook her head, but didn’t respond as she wheeled her bike closer Bill’s.

‘You do, else you wouldn’t have said that. What did she tell you?’

‘I thought you didn’t believe her’, Bev countered, but because she did, Stan knew for a fact that she was lying now.

‘I don’t, but I want to know what she said about me, about us.’ Stan declared. He didn’t understand why Bev wouldn’t just tell him, unless.. ‘it was something bad wasn’t it?’

‘Stan, talk to her, please. Just ask her, I’m not the person you should discuss this with,’ Bev insisted.

Stan stared at her for a few more seconds, before taking off without looking backwards. He was sure the other losers would follow.

He wasn’t sure where Emily could have gone, but he had a bike and she was walking, so he assumed that would see her walking among the sidewalk somewhere, but he didn’t.

He kept riding, Bill catching up to him fast. As always, silver was faster than anyone or anything could possibly be. He looked around street after street, hoping that she had kept going straight forward, towards the park.

Bev mentioned going to look for her at her apartment, but the losers realized that that was a long shot. She was never inside Bev’s apartment alone when he father was coming home, which around the time it was now. So they kept up on their way, riding until they saw the beginning of the park. Stan’s mind was racing a thousand miles a minute. The days events were catching up too him, and he felt exhausted. He was nearly killed, saw a killer clown, had to watch one of his best friends be dragged away by his mom, and to top it all off, his other friend claimed to be his daughter.

As they came closer, they saw that the jacket Emily had been wearing was draped over a bench. There were barely people there, only a little old lady who was walking her dog, but she was just about to leave.

They stopped at the entrance, Stan putting his bike away nicely on the side, while the rest of the losers dropped theirs down on the ground without a second thought. Stan rolled his eyes, how silver was still going after all the reckless things Bill had done with it.

‘W-w-we should s-s-split u-u-up’, Bill declared, looking around the group for conformation.

‘Are you kidding me? Splitting up would be dumb Big Bill, Eddie broke his arm today. If we split up we’re basically clown food.’ Richie said.

‘Well, Emily is not going to show herself if we’re all in group, I think Bill’s right. We have more chance to find her if we split up,’ Mike agreed.

‘Fine’, Richie huffed out, but he looked to Stan, as if to see if Stan would agree before doing anything. Stan too nodded; ‘they’re right, Rich’. And so the losers split up. The park itself wasn’t all that big, and most of it was an open space, but there were a handful of places that Emily could have hidden, so the losers elected to search for her there.

Stan walked towards the eastside of the park, before he heard a whisper of his name, so close by that it was as if someone has whispered it right beside him. He turned quickly with a gasp, but saw no one behind him, so he kept walking. Not even a second later he heard the sound again, but when he turned once more there was nobody. He’s gaze was pulled towards the trees towards the west side of the park, for no particular reason. The trees didn’t look any different, yet Stan still felt compelled to change his path. He heard his friends call out towards Emily, but he paid no attention to them. He didn’t know why he was walking towards the closed area, but it was like he didn’t have any control of his legs anymore. His own voice called out, ‘Emily’, but he barely noticed it, even if it was his own voice.

When he reached the tree, he looked back towards his friends, but a giant tree was in the way, and he couldn’t see his friends anymore, and he was sure they couldn’t see him anymore. Suddenly, it felt like Stan’s brain shot in action again. He realized that he had just walked away from the losers, causing him to be alone and vulnerable. Panic gripped around his heart like a vice, causing his breathing to speed up.

He had just made the decision to go back towards the open field, when he heard a small; ‘help’, coming from deeper in the woods. He was torn between going to get the others, or finding the person that called for help as fast as possible. Even if it was Emily, he didn’t want anything to happen to the girl. A loud ‘help’, called out but it sounded closer somehow, as if the person was teetering closer. Stan stepped forward against his common sense just a few steps, trying to find the person in danger.

The person screamed loud appearing in front of Stan behind a bush, scaring him half to death. In a panic Stan threw himself backwards, stumbling over a tree trunk and tottering to the ground. Stan scrambled back up fast, wincing at the dirt that was on his clothes, before looking up to who was in front of him. It was a little girl, her hair in pony tales, with a blue dress and black sneakers, crying and reaching out for him. Stan cringed, really didn’t like strangers, but he felt bad for this little girl, so he reached his arms out and lifted her up. ‘Are you okay’? He asked her, trying to keep his voice light. The little girl sniffled in his arms, ‘where did you go daddy? I need you, the evil clown took me.’ Stan froze, he instantly dropped the little girl, not thinking about his wellbeing at all. He stepped backwards, until his back hit a tree. The little girl was still sniffing, but it seemed like a grin was taking over her features.

Stan looked into her eyes and with a gasp, he saw his own eyes reflected there. He shook his head angrily, he wasn’t going to let Pennywise in his head. He was just taking advantage of Emily’s statement, but Stan couldn’t shake the feeling of dread away. He continued to stare at the little girl, trying to call out to his friends, but only a wheezing as his throat closed up.

‘Daddy, I missed you. Why don’t you love me? Do you hate me?’ The little girl took another few steps towards Stan. It seemed that all logic flew out the window, as Stan tried to disappear into the tree instead of just running around it.

The little girl changed appearance, and suddenly Emily stood before him. It was clear that the little girl had also been Emily, only younger. ‘Because I hate you too daddy,’ Stan cringed at the words, ‘when you killed yourself, I was so mad. You never really loved me did you daddy? You’re a coward. IT should have picked you off when it had the change, it’s not like anything was gained from your life. You caused me and mom so much pain, I wish you had left when I was little, then you wouldn’t have hurt me or mom.’

Stan’s face paled, all the color draining from his cheeks. His hands were trembling as they wiped down his pants. ‘You’re lying’, Stan’s uttered, his voice sounding shaky even to himself.

‘You’ll never be anything, you should just kill yourself now, save you a lot of trouble.’ IT Emily leaned in close to Stan, changing back into the clown that had broken Eddie’s arm mere hours ago. ‘You couldn’t keep her away from me in 27 years, and you couldn’t keep me from her now.’ IT whispered into Stan’s ear, who could do nothing but let out a pity full whimper. What was Ben taking so long? As if Ben heard his thoughts, Ben walked into Stan’s line of sight. Ben screamed as he saw IT hunched over Stan, alerting the others of IT’s presence.

IT vanished as fast as he had come, IT’s hands falling from Stan’s neck. Stan fell to the ground, his breath coming in gasps, Ben ran to him, and he could hear Bev, Richie, Mike and Bill running towards them too. Ben pulled Stan towards his chest as he started sobbing.

‘Stan, Stan are you okay?’ Bev asked him placing a hand on his shoulder.

‘IT’, Stan rasped. He looked up to see his friends looking at him confused. ‘IT has her.’


	6. Chapter 6

‘Oh my god, oh my god, I don’t even want to know what that is,’ Emily mumbles as she shoot upright. The plastic red toy continue to flow beside her, while she jumps backwards into the ditchwater. It’s disgusting, and she wants nothing more but to go somewhere dry, but when she looked around, there was nowhere to go. She was in a deep pool of disgusting water, surrounded by children toys, and a shiver runs through her entire body. She guessed she was in the sewer, as it certainly smelled like it, she had never been in a sewer though, and she had hoped she never would have too.

The last thing she remembered was that Pennywise was behind her, and she had tried but failed miserably to run. The thought off Pennywise is what finally got her to scramble up, looking around frantically before deciding to follow one of the tunnels, regardless of where she would end up. If IT placed her in there, he would definitely come to look for her in the same place he left her, so Emily’s best bet was to try and find another way out.

The water had soaked her clothes, and she was freezing. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself and began to trudge in the direction of which she hoped was an exit. She looked around, but beside the massive amount of children toys, she couldn’t see anything. 

She saw a stream of light coming from the direction she was walking. Speeding up, she ran towards it, but her hope was roughly taken from her, once she realized that the stream of light was coming from a crack of the sewers, not an exit. She sighed, but she didn’t give herself to think about things rationally for a second. Instead she kept walking, determined to get off here.

She wondered if her friends were looking for her. She thought off Eddie, who had to go to hospital and she couldn’t help but feel a little relief, at least that meant he wasn’t putting himself in more danger. Her mind wondered to Stan, and she abruptly paused. Would Stan come looking for her? Would he even notice she was missing?

Not wanting to worry about it anymore, Emily decided to focus on finding a way out. The Stan that had yelled at her wasn’t her dad, her dad would never have yelled at her like that. Besides, she had to admit to herself that her story did sound crazy to an outsider. Especially to her father, who always had to see things before he believed them.

She didn’t know what she was hoping for, for the losers to come and help her, or for them to stay safe. She wanted to be home right about now. He wanted to drink hot chocolate with her mom, and she wanted to see her friends again, she was done with this damn clown and with this godforsaken town, she was starting to realize why her dad never talked about his childhood.

Most of all, she was terrified, she didn’t want to die in a sewer where no one would find her. She didn’t want her mother to wonder where she was for the rest of her life. Emily started crying, she didn’t understand why this was happening to her.

A thunk pulled her out of her thoughts. She hastily whipped her tears away, straightening up, and putting on a brave face. If IT was going to kill her, he was not getting the satisfaction of seeing her broken before he did.

Instead of IT showing up, Emily heard the agitated voice of Eddie Kaspbrak echoing through the sewer. ‘Don’t push me fucking asshole, it’s your fault I’m here. If my cast gets wet I swear to god. Do you know what my mom will do when she finds out I ran from the hospital? She’ll kill me’, his high pitched voice shouted.

‘Calm your tits okay, after we spend the night together I’ll make her forget all about it’, Richie teased, though there was a certain softness in his voice reserved only for Eddie.

Eddie sounded like he would argue again, but before he could, Ben spotted Emily. ‘Emily’, he screamed out before running over to her.

Emily let out a sigh of relief, her arms wrapping around Ben tightly. The other losers soon followed, a chorus of ‘are you okay’ could be heard from the group. Emily nodded, before slightly pulling back. ‘How did you guys know IT took me’, she asked, her voice shaking, she was so glad that the losers had come to help her.

‘Stan told us IT told him’, Bev muttered, which caused Emily’s attention to turn on Stan. Stan who wasn’t part of the group hug, instead he stood on the side, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Which honestly was fair. It was then that Emily noticed the red lines across his face, it was bleeding, and it looked like it hurted.

‘Oh my god are you okay?’ Emily said worriedly, her joints pointing downward. Stan shrugged, but there were tears in his eyes, and he had a far off look. Emily looked at him first a second, she wanted to do something to help, but anything she did would no doubt just make everything worse. She watched as Eddie gave Stan a tight hug. Emily’s eyes were pulled towards Eddie’s cast with the word loser written on it, and she winced. Stan continued to look at her, seemingly looking her up and down, but he didn’t say anything. ‘I’m sorry’, Emily whispered, shrinking back as she and Stan made eye contact. She didn’t elaborate why she was sorry, but everyone knew. Stan opened his mouth, but Emily interjected. ‘Thank you for saving me though, I owe you’. 

Stan continued to stare, but after a few seconds, he too opened his mouth; ‘You’re my friend, no matter how crazy you are, I can’t let a friend get hurt’. Bev seemed proud of him, but Stan turned around before anything else could be said.

He came for her. She had called him a coward, but he had still chosen to come here and try to help her, even if he thought she was crazy. She was wrong, her dad wasn’t a coward, he was a human being that made mistakes from time to time, but her father had always loved her no matter what mistakes she made, so it was only fair she did the same for him.

‘Hey, where’s Bill?’ Eddie spoke up suddenly. The losers all looked around frantically, but nobody could spot him.

‘Come on, we’ve got to find him’, Richie decided. The group went back from where they came, and Emily followed. Stan looked horrified, his face pale white, but he didn’t complain as he kept walking.

Shuffling behind the group. He started to quietly weep the further the losers went on, and Mike walked back before throwing his arm around Stan’s shoulder, pressing him closer. They walked for a long time, before finally coming across another open space, where an entire mountain of toys were stacked on top of each other. ‘Guys’, Eddie muttered, shock showing in his face. He was looking up, and Emily followed suit, a gasp leaving her lips. As she looked up, she saw children floating in the air, they appeared dead. Emily wondered if these were all the kids that Pennywise had taken, there appeared to be hundreds of them.

Emily couldn’t help but cower back in fear, she didn’t want to end up like them. ‘Bill’, Bev called out, the first to recover from the shock, as she trudged forward to find Bill. Emily squeezed her hands in tight fist, hoping it would ground

Her, but it didn’t help a bit. Still, she followed Bev, determined to not let IT win, she was not going to let fear take over. A small sob sounded behind them, and when Emily turned back, she noticed that Stan was crying, his shoulders shaking as sobs bubbled out of them. ‘We’ll catch up’, she told the other losers confidently, though she wasn’t feeling like that in the slightest. The other losers nodded, though Bev looked apprehensive. Emily ducked her head down, trying to make eye contact with Stan, whose head was dropped to his chest.

‘You’re okay’, Emily started off. ‘Look I know that you’re terrified, but I know you. You came, you came to help me, a person you think you’ve only known for about 2 weeks. You’re a good person Stan. I know you’re scared, so am I, but you can do this. I know you can’, Emily smiled, even though her heart was hammering out of her chest. Stan looked up, his face unreadable. He took a deep breath, nodding slightly. Emily smoked again, happy that she had made a slight difference. She turned back around to go after the others, but stopped again once Stan placed a hand on her shoulder, and turned her around.

He tentatively pulled Emily in a hug, and after getting over her shock, Emily hugged him back. ‘Look I’, Stan hesitated before he continued, ‘I don’t know if even believe any of this, but I.. I. Look all I want say that if you were family than, I definitely wouldn’t mind that’, he finally forced out. He sounded uncomfortable, but it was genuine all the same. Emily felt a warm feeling spread through her. Laughing she hugged Stan closer for a second before letting him go and saying, ‘okay, come on, Bill needs us. Friends are family, if you want them to be.’

Stan froze, his eyes widening a fraction. ‘Where did you hear that?’ He asked, watching as Emily shrugged. ‘You told me that, why?’ She asked confused. ‘It’s just what my father says to me, you know what, never mind.’ Stan mumbled, but he didn’t elaborate, so Emily chose not to respond either.

They caught up with the group pretty quickly, Emily grabbing Bev’s hand as she got close again, both because she was afraid, but also to thank Bev for helping her out. Your eyes landed on Bill however, who stood facing backwards, talking to a little boy in yellow raincoat.

‘But y-y-y-ou’re not G-g-georgie’, he said determent, and then he pulled the trigger, causing the little boy to fall backwards into the greywater, unmoving, with a gaping hole in his head. Emily gasped, gripping Bev’s hand tightly.

‘It’s IT’, Bev murmured, but it was quite for so long that Emily had started to get serious doubts about that. For a second she was worried that Bill had actually killed his little brother, and she couldn’t even begin to phantom how much grieve that would bring to Bill, it would be Pennywise’s ultimate revenge. Thankfully however, Georgie’s body suddenly started violently thrashing, A scream tearing it’s way out of his body. Two pompoms suddenly appeared on his shoes, A clown suit taking over the yellow slicker Georgie had been wearing. All the losers including Bill stepped backwards subconsciously, creating more space between them and IT. 

The short arms and legs of Georgie shut out, instead the body of Pennywise shot out. IT’s body stood up, without moving it’s legs, like it was a marionette.

‘Kill IT Bill , kill it’, Eddie screamed, the others soon following. Emily gulped, before too yelling at Bill to shoot him again. She let go of Bev’s hand, looking around for a weapon to defend herself, in case she would need it, but she came up empty handed.

Before she could scream at Bill once again, she heard Mike whisper; ‘it’s not loaded.’ She stopped dead in her tracks, her wide eyes on Bill who seemed to have become more brave from his friends encouragements, as he pressed the bolt pistol against IT’s head.

‘It’s not loaded’, Mike called out, but when he did, Bill had already pressed the trigger. It didn’t seem to matter however, as IT’s head shot back, it’s head crumbling in on itself, dropping backwards. IT roared, shaking his head while he brought his head back up, the gap closing again, like Bill had done nothing to hurt him in the first place.

He shot forward, swiping his claws at the losers, but ultimately still going after Bill, who was right in front of him. Bill fell backwards, quickly crawling back, using the bolt pistol to stop Pennywise’s mouth from closing in on him.

‘Bill watch out’, Richie cried, though it did little to help him. Pennywise continued to gnaw at Bill, and he looked seconds away from actually doing it before Bev intervened.

‘Leave him alone’, she screeched, grabbing an iron rod and running forward. IT stopped his attempts to eat Bill instead stopping the rod midair. When Bev froze in fear, Mike ran forward only to be tossed across the room as if he was nothing but a feather. Emily too ran forward, lodging herself around IT’s legs while Ben and Stan attempted to grab his arms.

IT was much stronger than all of them combined, even with Richie jumping on his back, and soon, Emily had no choice but to let go if his legs, instead falling to the floor like she was a ragdoll. Richie helped her up, and when she recovered from her landing, she saw that IT had his arm around Bill’s neck, keeping him incapacitated.

‘Let him go’, Bev begged, but judging from the evil smirk on Pennywise’s lips, Emily could tell he would never do so.

‘No, I’ll take him, I’ll take all of you. And I’ll feast on your flesh as I feel on your fear. Or’, IT sang, his finger swaying back and forth, ‘you’ll leave us be. I’ll take him, only him, and you will all live to grow and thrive and lead happy lives, until old age takes you back to the weeds.’ 

‘L-leave’, Bill begged, ‘I’m the one who dragged you all into this. I’m s-s-s-s-orry. Go’

‘S-s-s-sorry’, IT teased Bill.

‘Guys, we can’t’, Bev said, looking around for backup. Emily couldn’t help but stare on, this had already happened, and considering Bill was one of the adults that was in the restaurant, she was pretty sure how this would end up.

Richie got off the ground, not taking his eyes of IT or Bill for a second. ‘I told you Bill, I fucking told you. I don’t want to die. It’s your fault’ Richie began pacing up and down. ‘You punched me in the face, You made me walk through shitty water, you brought me to a fucking crackhead house, and now’, Richie trailed off, grabbing a baseball bate off the pile of toys, ‘I’m gonna have to kill this fucking clown.’

A nervous smile made its way onto Emily’s face, as she watched Richie leap forward. ‘Welcome to the losers club asshole.’ IT tossed Bill to the side, and the fight begun. As Richie swung the bat at IT, Mike tried attacking him too. IT’s mouth opened, and black burned arms reached out, grabbing Mike’s weapon with an iron grip. Seemingly lost in the need to help his friends, Stan swooped down, using a wooden plank to set Mike free. Pennywise turned his attention on him, the painted who he was so terrified of making an appearance.

Stan wasn’t having it, hitting IT again with the same force as before. Emily tried helping too, though IT saw her coming and held out on of his hands, grabbing Emily by the neck and slamming her down without any effort.

Emily’s ear rung, and she must have passed out for a minute, cause when she came too, she was in an upright position. She was seeing stars for a minute before finally focusing on the entire losers club, watching IT recede into a tunnel. Stan handed Bill the baseball bat, but before Bill could think to use it, Pennywise muttered a ‘fear’, before slipping down, gone for it’s 27 year rest.

The losers all took a deep breath, before Stan seemed to remember Emily. He ran to her, grabbing her shirt to pull her up some more, checking to see if something was wrong with her. There was. A pounding headache prohibited Emily from feeling any type of enjoyment from defeating pennywise, instead she focused all she could on not passing out again. ‘Hey dad, if you remember this in like 27 years, I think you owe me a puppy don’t you?’

Stan let out a wet laugh, ‘sure’, though he still didn’t seem 100% on board with the idea. A bright light seemed to shine in front of Emily, though none of the other losers saw it, or if they did, they didn’t mention it. Emily was reminded of the restaurant, where she had seen the same light before waking up in the alleyway in the past, maybe this time she was going back to the future.

She was alright with that, she had missed her mom, and she spend more time with her dad then she could have hoped, now it was time to go back to her time, and live her life, no matter how much she would miss her father. Despite the bright light forcing Emily’s eyes closed, she still snapped them open. She clinged to the cuff of stans shirt. ‘Don’t’, she rasped, ‘If by some miracle you remember this in the future, don’t do it. I love you, even if you don’t go back, just stay with me and mom.’ There was more she wanted to say, but the light seemed to grow brighter, and before she could, she fell unconscious again.


	7. Chapter 7

‘Little hummingbird, hey wake up,’ Emily heard someone whisper to her when she finally regained consciousness. She groaned; her head was killing her. She reached her hand up to rub against her head, but a hand intercepted hers. ‘Don’t do that, you’ll just worsen the bruise,’ someone said to her. Emily’s eyes flew open. She recognized that voice.

She was laying on her back, on a chair that had fallen, and it was pressing harshly into her back. She furrowed her eyebrows, looking only at the ceiling, because she was disoriented and very dizzy and couldn’t quite manage to lift her head up. It seemed like she was back in the Chinese restaurant where she met the adult losers, as she recognized the awful wallpaper. She didn’t know what to expect, not after everything that had happened to her, but she could have sworn she heard… 

‘Emily are you okay?’ The same voice called out again. Emily’s eyes filled up with tears straight away, her bottom lip trembling. She looked to her left, towards her father who was crouched down next to her, his eyes looking over her worriedly.

‘Dad’, Emily croaked out, the first tears beginning to fall. Stan’s hand dropped from Emily’s forehead to her hand, squeezing to convey the words he didn’t say; are you alright? She wasn’t, not all. It wasn’t young Stan she was seeing, it was her adult dad, the one who had raised her, the one who had helped her with her homework and who taught her how to write and speak properly, this was her dad. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, no words but a broken sob flowing out. At the sound Stan looked even more worried, if that was possible, his words tumbling out in a panic. 

‘Are you alright? Does it hurt so much? You’ve taken a lot of tumbles before I thought this was just like other times,’ as he was speaking, he tried to get her upright, ‘but if it hurts that bad maybe we should get you to a hospital,’ her father worried. Emily couldn’t even think of the words to respond to that.

‘Okay, I got ice’, Mike stood in the doorway, raising his arms in a gesture, a loving but worried smile on his face. Emily’s attention was pulled from her father, for about five seconds, but it was enough for her to see that it was not just her and her dad, every other member of the losers club was seated aswell. Richie closest to her, followed by Bev and Eddie, who had placed his hands on Richie’s shoulder, and Bill who alongside Ben, was picking up shards of glasses in the floor next to her father. She quickly looked back at her father, worried that he might have disappeared in the small time she wasn’t looking at him, but he was still there. ‘Here’, Mike said, caustically approaching the both of them, as if he sensed that something was about to go down.

‘Thank you’, Stan said, taking the ice pack from Mike’s hands but not looking away from Emily. He opened his mouth to say something again, but before the first syllable even left his mouth, Emily grabbed onto his jacket, using it to pull herself upright and hug him like it was the last thing she would ever get to do. She sobbed, almost painfully, and she could feel that everyone was looking at her, but she was too busy crying to respond to it.

She buried her head in Stan’s shoulder, who had started to card his hand through Emily’s hair. ‘Hey, hey it’s alright sweetheart, you’re okay’, he mumbled, though he didn’t sound so sure himself. The ice pack was still in his hand, and with the one he wasn’t using to calm Emily down, he held it to the side of her head, trying to get to the wound as best he could. ‘How are you here?’ Emily cried out, shivering when the ice pack was firmly pressed against her. Stan planted a kiss on the top of her head, ‘what do you mean?’ He asked, and he sounded genuinely confused. 

‘What day are we, why are we here. No wait why are you here’? Emily was still so confused. Did she do something in the past to change whatever happened in the future? 

‘Maybe we should get her to hospital?’ Eddie reasoned, and she heard Ben hum affirmatively. Emily panicked; she did not want to go to the hospital at all. 

I’m alright, I’m alright’, she repeated, pulling back from her dad but still keeping his sleeve tucked tight into her fist. Stan would hate that she knew, because it would form a ton of wrinkles, but he didn’t say anything and just looked at Emily. 

She sniffled, whipping her tears away. She had never in her life cried so much as the last few weeks, and she was getting kind off tired of it, she just wanted to stop crying. 

She shot her dad a hesitant smile, which he dutifully returned, though Emily could see him rub his hands on his pants, a sign he was nervous. 

‘I think I remember, just tell me again so I’m sure,’ Emily lied, using her poker face as to not give away the fact that that was bullshit. She still had no idea how she got here. 

Stan stared at her probably to gauge if she was lying or not, but he must not have seen anything for he started to explain regardless.

‘Mike called me to have a reunion with my friends, and because you asked me to come I took you with me remember?’ Stan explained. Emily scrunched her nose up, why would her dad take her with him? And what changed with the last time Mike called?

‘Then you fell backwards when Richie over there pretended to see a cockroach.’ 

‘Yeah, sorry kiddo’, Richie sheepishly said from behind Emily. 

‘What about IT,’ Emily asked without thinking. Stan’s entire body froze up, and if it weren’t for the circumstances, Emily would have laughed. 

‘What the fuck’, she heard Richie say, and she turned around to him and the other losers. Eddie’s mouth was dropped open, and Mike sunk down in his seat, staring towards Emily. The others were looking at her with varying amounts of shock. 

‘How, how do you know about IT?’ Stan stammered. Emily turned back to him, but she did not know how to respond at all. ‘I don’t know never mind’, Emily was quick to counter, she had no idea why she asked that question, as she didn’t know how to answer it. 

‘Emily’, her father said, placing his hand on her shoulder. Emily was breathing quite heavily, in a panic of the reaction of her dad and his friends. ‘Emily it’s okay, I’m not mad, just tell me. You’re not in trouble’, Stan said comfortingly. 

‘I just know okay, I know about IT.’ Emily replied, her voice still shaking slightly. 

‘But you’ve got to know somehow, I didn’t even remember, let alone told you about any of this, so how do you know?’ 

‘Can you please just answer my question?’ Emily asked, desperate for the attention to be turned off her. 

‘IT didn’t wake up again’, Mike answered her, ‘I guess we really did defeat it was kids, because it hasn’t made any killings, nor has any child gone missing.’ 

Emily breathed out a sigh of relief. Good. That must have been the reason her father was here, alive. 

Emily reached for Richie’s glass on the table, filled to the brim with w whatever drink there was, chucking it down. She could feel her dad’s gaze burning the side of her head, but she didn’t realize why until she spit out the drink a few seconds later. 

Richie had a devilish smile on his face, shrugging when Emily looked at him betrayed. 

‘I’m an adult man, I get to drink vodka’. 

Stan wordlessly handed her his drank, which was plain water.

‘Thanks,’ she muttered. She didn’t have a clue why, but she was thirsty. 

‘This is just like when Henry gave me a black eye and Richie told me that I should just drink some alcohol to get my mind off the pain.’ She laughed. 

‘Richie did what now?’ Bill chocked on his own drink.

‘Henry bowers gave you a black eye,’ Stan yelled out in a questioning tone. 

Emily had a lot of explaining to do.

—————————————————————-

‘Wait’, Ben said, ‘I think I remember that. You were with u defeating IT weren’t you?’

Emily nodded sheepishly, her leg bouncing up and down nervously. She didn’t dare to make eye contact with her dad, something she had not yet done since starting her story.

She tried to look as innocently as possible, but from the looks the losers were casting behind her, she knew she was not succeeding.

‘You’, Stan started off, his tone so devoid of emotion it made Emily shiver.

‘You went back in time, you faced Henry Bowers, got beat up and then fought IT?’ Stan’s voice went up a few octaves the longer he spoke, his voice near hysterics when he finished.

Emily looked at him dubious, she didn’t want her dad to be mad at her, but she was going to stand up for herself.

‘I didn’t really have all that much choice, it’s not like I chose to go to the past. It wasn’t a conscious thought, but what else was I supposed to do when I ended up there?’ Emily asked, trying to sound as confidently as possible.

‘Yeah, what’s up with that,’ Eddie asked, his nose scrunched up as he thought things over. ‘Aren’t you wondering how that happened? Like statistically the odds of something like that happening are like zero.’

‘Can we not ask these questions, I just found out my daughter fought a demon clown that we all had nightmares about. The how is not important.’ Stan was practically yelling, turning a bit red in the face with contained anger.

‘Dad’, Emily tried hesitantly, but she was cut off before being able to say anything else.

‘Don’t Emily not right now’, Stan said, and Emily had never heard him so mad at her before.

He grabbed her shoulders, turning her towards him. His grip was firm but not harsh, because her dad could never be violent with her. Still though, it showed that he meant business.

‘Why would you ever do that’

You put yourself in so much danger do you understand that? Do you have any idea what could’ve happened to you? Do you know how heartbroken me and your mother would have been if you would have ended up hurt, or even worse dead?’ Stan asked her, shaking her a bit, maintaining eye contact for the entire time he spoke.

Richie laughed nervously; ‘Stan, Stan the man, maybe you shouldn’t.’

Stan looked at Richie, taking a deep breath when he did, realizing his hands from Emily shoulders. ‘I’m sorry, I just need you to know that that was so dangerous, and I never ever want you to do that again.’

Emily frowned, this wasn’t her fault, why would her dad blame this on her?

‘No, I didn’t know what could happen to me, cause you didn’t write me a letter to explain it.’ Emily responded.

Stan frowned at her, she had told him everything, covering up the fact that he killed himself by saying that something happened to him but she didn’t want to talk about that yet, and everyone had accepted that. She hadn’t told him about the letters either, but she realized that she really wanted an answer. It had been eating away at her from the moment she found the other letters, and she needed to know before she would ever be able to let go of what she had seen happen to Stan. She would never be able to look at her dad without questioning.

‘You wrote everyone letters except me, why not me? Did I not have a right to know what was happening?’

Despite her annoyance, she could feel the tears creeping up on her again. The fact that Stan still looked mostly bewildered was not helping.

Emily looked around her, she wasn’t sure if she should say something about her father’s suicide to the others, maybe she should just wait until she was alone with him.

When she glanced at her dad again, he smiled at her encouragingly.

‘It’s okay,’ he murmured, ‘you can tell them everything you want to tell me.’

Emily took a deep breath, she knew that she might hurt her father a lot with the knowledge she was about to spread, but’s he also that Stan would want to know, and now that she had given a piece of her information, Stan would not give up until he knew the full story.

‘You wrote letters,’ Emily said slowly, though she wasn’t sure if it was to prepare her dad or herself. ‘Suicide letters.’

She heard collective gasped from the other losers, though the loudest came from Mike, but Stan’s face remained stoic.

Emily let a few tears fall, thinking back to the moment she saw her mother burst through the door, and her scream tearing throughout the entire house, despite her dad still being alive now, she didn’t think she would be able to enter that bathroom for a long time.

Stan pulled her into a hug, and Emily let him, though she didn’t was worried about him, and about his lack of reaction.

‘I thought about it’, Stan confused when Emily couldn’t watch him anymore. ‘When Mike called, before he told me that IT hadn’t come back, but he had missed us and he wanted a reunion. Although I’m sure the bastard also wanted us here right now just in case IT did decide to make an appearance.’ Stan let out a wet laugh, and Emily laughed with him.

‘But then I remember small pieces of my friends, and I thought about your mom and you, and I couldn’t do it. Having Mike tell me IT was dead helped a bit too I suppose.’

‘I don’t know about writing any letters, I didn’t think about that now, but I’m sure that the only reason I didn’t write you a letter then,’ Stan took a big gulp, and now Emily was pressed against him she could feel how bad he was trembling. ‘I’m sure the only reason was because I didn’t want to cause you any more pain. I didn’t want you to go to Derry or be put in danger, I didn’t want you to have the same traumas as I did. I’m sorry.’

Emily shook her head, leaning back as she looked her dad up and down. He was alright, he wasn’t dead, and he was right here with her.

‘It’s alright just, don’t ever do that to me again okay?’

Stan smiled sadly but nodded none the less.

‘Scouts honor’, he joked. The losers all laughed too, Richie coming up and patting Stan on the shoulder. He opened his mouth, but Stan’s; ‘don’t you dare say it Tozier’, was quick to interrupt.

Richie laughed, but listened to Stan for once it seemed, as he kept quiet. The losers broke out in chatter amongst themselves again, their attention now finally away from Stan and his daughter.

‘Hey’, Stan said when he deemed it private enough to speak again. ‘I love you, you know that right? I couldn’t have asked for a better daughter, I’m so proud of you.’ Stan kisses Emily on the forehead, immediately after

Beginning a conversation with Bill who was seated next to him, probably to avoid Emily becoming embarrassed. He was an ‘old man’ after all, as Emily had often joked. She looked around the table, Eddie was already pulling her into the conversation he was having with Bev and Ben. Sweet kind Ben who was already throwing a smile her way without her even doing anything to earn it. Just like when they were kids, the accepted Emily into their group as if she had always belonged there. she could see her dad cast her sideway glances, looking out for her.

Emily’s heart swelled with love for all the people she was seeing, and she knew in that moment, that she would be grateful for every single day she would get to spend with all these amazing people, especially her dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter! I hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually really proud of this story so please comment what you think of it!


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